“You can borrow trouble from the future, but you won’t deplete the supply.”
Gloria Schoolcraft
I raised my family in a house that sat across the driveway from my parents. It was easy to run up to Mom’s and ask to borrow a cup of sugar or a can of tomatoes when I had outrun my headlights in planning a recipe. My mom, and later my daughters in law, followed the same tradition. Sometimes, when I came back to what later became my line camp, after being widowed and remarrying, I’d see a bag of sugar or some such on the counter with a note saying the item was a replacement for raiding Granny’s cupboard.
Planning ahead is necessary when concocting a meal or for scheduling activities on the calendar, but sometimes Plan B has to come into play. Weather has a lot to do with the calendar notations, especially if you live in the country. And if neither kitchen has the item needed for a recipe, then an alternate menu will need to be prepared.
I often find myself repeating sayings used by my own Granny, or others of her generation, and mostly, it’s good advice in a nutshell. “Don’t borrow trouble,” should be pasted on my fridge because it’s the one I most often forget, and yes, my friend is right. The supply of trouble out there is endless, and no matter what form of it you borrow, or how much, there’s more where that came from.
That being said, here’s the other thing. Planning for trouble, being sure of what form it will come in, is futile because trouble is a shape shifter. No matter how carefully you prepare for the unexpected, (which is now the expected) the mess you end up having to deal with is never going to be what you anticipated, and all that preparation was in vain. Furthermore, you’re now so discombobulated from worrying that you haven’t the mental resources to deal with what’s in front of you.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me borrowing trouble is about control, and the notion that nobody has my back. None of which is true. A lot of folks are there for me if I ask, and if my pride keeps me from asking, the result would be about the same as if, upon discovering the sugar container was empty, I had used salt instead of sugar in that recipe. There’s very little we have control over, when you come right down to it, and our efforts in that direction leave us exhausted and frustrated.
Yesterday’s six inches of snow is melting, but there’s more in the forecast. Today, I’m going to enjoy the sunshine and do what’s in front of me. The next round of snow is going to come, or go around us, but it’s not here now. Still, I haven’t put away the scoop shovel or taken the coveralls out of the vehicles. This is just spring on the northern plains and common sense is really the best antidote for future trouble.
Meet me here next week and meanwhile, do your best. Somebody might like it.