Titlt

While I was growing up I did virtually anything that would earn some spending money. I did gardening and cleanup projects (or almost anything else) for numerous ladies in my hometown. Before price fixing was outlawed, it didn’t dawn on me that it was no coincidence that they all paid me the same rate and never competed for my services. I caddied at our local country club and later did almost anything needed to help the Pro run the Pro Shop. I sold gladiola flowers, greeting cards, and virtually anything else that could be sold to make a few dollars. I worked for a caterer and our local country club food service manager. I passed papers for twenty-five cents a day. I think you get the picture.



Other than buying a “ham” amateur radio outfit and the bicycle needed for my paper route almost all of my liquid assets unfortunately were invested in a local emporium (adults called it a “hangout”) called the Blue Diamond. Some of the money went toward fountain cherry cokes and the rest was largely invested a nickel at a time in pinball machines in the back. I invested enough to “master” each of the machines and rack up winning games but somehow always left broke. The secret to scoring points was to be able to shake the machine enough to get the metal balls to go where you needed them to go. Unfortunately they installed a “tilt” mechanism in the machines to foil folks like me and keep me “honest.” A bit too much “body English” finessing the machine would activate a mechanism that would end the game prematurely with a big illuminated sign saying “TILT” for all to see.


Today I thought of those days of old. My wife and I were in a huge hot tub full of bubbling 34 degree Celsius (93.2 Fahrenheit) bubbling water. We were oblivious to the air temperature hovering in the mid-thirty degrees range. Our little world just off the coast of Newfoundland consists of perhaps a thousand gallons of artificially heated bliss perching 13 decks above the rolling Atlantic Ocean. The ocean temperature is a chilly fifty-six degrees and dropping. I have no thoughts or interest in anything about the ocean even thought its depth and breadth exponentially dwarf our little Shangri-la.


That all changed dramatically as our ship started to roll navigating through the seven and a half to twelve foot swells far below us. Suddenly our hot tub went into a “tilt” posture and water started flowing out of one side and then the other in a rhythmic fluid motion. I had no choice but to acknowledge there was a whole huge “real” world with awesome depth and power outside my little hide away. No longer could I be oblivious to the depth, breadth and currents of an enormous ocean extending thousands of miles beyond my little floating hot tub. Kind of reminds me of how oblivious I can be to a world of over six billion folks till it “tilts” my comfortable little cocoon perched high “above it.” It’s amazing how far I’ll go to partition out all “distractions” and create a little euphoric “bubbling” bliss. Invariably things “tilt” to bring me back to a real perspective. Sometimes it’s sudden attacks or other outrageous actions but invariably that sea of folks and their power and dynamics gets my shocked attention. Guess I wasn’t designed to obliviously create and control my own little world with no regard for everyone else. Perhaps that’s why there always seems to be a “tilt” to cause me to restart from a new expanded perspective.