....It's been weeks since my last confession. Oh, sorry! It seems the wreck my daughter and I had was a little more serious than we thought, both for my clown car and for me!  This is the first day I have been able to write in 10 days. Apparently, when the collision occurred, my collar bone cracked and 3 of the vertebrae in my neck were compromised. After about a week, the pain in my shoulder not only didn't go away, it got much worse and my arms would go numb.  It was so weird, so painful and I've spent the better part of the last 3 weeks either in bed or in a chair with ice packs, stumbling over words.  Best advice: if you hear screeching behind you DON"T LOOK IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR and DON'T TURN YOUR HEAD.  I saw her coming and I looked over at my daughter. Bad news for the neck. The collar bone crack came from holding on to, no gripping for dear life, the steering wheel. Enough about me. I'll live and the clown car is shiny and new, just like before the crash.

Next weekend i am hosting a neighborhood Unite For Change meet and greet as my part of the national grassroots Obama'08 general campaign.  There are 20 plus events scheduled for this weekend in Oklahoma and that is pretty good for this red state. I am anxious to meet other  Obama supporters and have the chance to talk with people who may be undecided. 

You can find an event near you at www.mybarackobama.com. Just click on your state, scroll down and hit "more events." Your time is now to get involved. Stand for Change (or you will fall for anything! ) A little word play on one of my favorite slogans.

Before it became bad form to spank your children, it used to be that a kick in the pants was just what one needed to change a behavior or a bad attitude.  The slow learner that I am, I find a kick in the pants is still what it takes for me to change course!

In fact, unless I am really made miserable, I probably won't change anything i do or say. Because, if I'm not miserable, then It must be working and if It is working, then things must be okay, right?  It has taken me almost 50 years to learn how to interpret my internal barometer. In matters of the heart, if it hurts - I'm sure I can fix it - if I just say the right thing, do the right thing, think the right way, huh, who was that person? Oh, yeah, it was me. If God could have gotten my attention with a kick in the pants then I wouldn't have had to be smashed by the steamroller. But I chose to learn lessons the hard way. Not smart on my part.

In 1973, a friend and I drove to California. We had trouble getting back home because there was a gas shortage and stations were closed. We were stranded in Denver for 2 days because we couldn't buy gas.  That was 1973. A kick in the pants.

In 1986, I wrote paper for a college class about the impact of chlorofluorocarbons on the Ozone layer. As a result of many, many studies and a boycott of aerosol spray cans, chlorofluorocarbons were removed. An alarm had been sounded alerting us to the fragile nature of our beautiful big, blue world. A kick in the pants.

I started making small changes back then, but not many, and certainly not if it was inconvenient.

I don't know about you, but today, I am miserable enough now to make big changes.  I replaced as many bulbs as possible with those funny curly-cue lights (but be careful if you do, be responsible with them, if they break, they contain Mercury!!!) Better yet -turn the lights out when you leave the room, my mom taught me that.  Good advice. Recycle. Simple. Take the caps off plastic bottles, the labels off cans, the rubber bands off unread newspapers. Are you not miserable enough to take the time to help? Our world needs you. How does recycling effect gas prices? According to Sprintrecycling.com:  Recycling one ton of new paper translates into the savings of:

• 17 mature pulp-producing trees
• 78.75 gallons of oil
• 7,000 gallons of water
• 41,000 Kilowatt hours of energy

Supply and demand. I have changed my driving habits, bought a small car, keep the oil changed and the car maintained, adjusted the thermostat to just about uncomfortable (but not quite!) Opened the windows, bought gas on Wednesdays in the mornings, unplugged all the lamps and appliances when they aren't being used, don't let the water run down the sink, etc., etc. So many little things, times millions of people - Imagine.

We can do this. We can make a difference. We can learn from our mistakes and recognize the warning signs. We don't have to stand waiting for the inevitable steamroller.

It wasn't so much a kick that derailed us last weekend, but a rear-end collision. John Lennon said it best when he wrote Life is what happens to you wile you are making other plans. My daughter and I had just filled up the clown car with way too expensive gas, bought two Route 44 drinks from Sonic and were stopped at a red light laughing about the lyrics of some 1980's song on the radio when the sound of schreeeching, can't stop, don't look in the rear view mirror, oh no you looked, she's gonna hit us Oh my God Oh My God OH MYGOD!!!!!! Slow motion twist in time to see my daughter grab her head and lunge forward then back, strawberry soda drenches the I-pods and cell phones. The light is still red and we are in the intersection. Cars swerve around us, someone stops.

The scariest thing about the wreck was the fact that I had no fear about getting out of my car in the middle of traffic. Thanks to our guardian angels and God himself there was no blood, no fractures, no jaws of life, no tow-truck. Neither the nurse who hit us nor either of us fainted at the scene or needed emergency medical attention. Thank you God.

My little clown car, my little 2008 Honda Fit, held up well. We thought it would have been an accordion, but no. Once we got the bumper off the ground and wired back on the car.  I could drive it to the body shop where they say it will take 2 and half weeks to make it good as new. For a little clown car it held up like a road warrior.  

My daughter and I are, naturally, stiff and sore and will enjoy the company of a chiropractor and a massage therapist for a few visits and hopefully, we too will be good as new in a few weeks! Thank You God.

If we pay attention to our surroundings, recognize that the time is now to make a change, we can reclaim our world. 

Yes, you can.