Listen, I'll take common sense over smarts any day. Sad thing is, most people with common sense are really smart too. I can quote a passage from just about any book I have read since I began Gone with the Wind when I was 9 years old, but I can't figure out instructions to put something together to save my life. People have told me that I am really smart because I can read a 400 page book in one day, can win most of the Scrabble games I play, and can remember facts about subjects. I can also report and teach those facts, but when it comes to common sense, I am lost in the ocean. A schematic drawing looks like Japanese to me. I actually feel panic when I have to look at instructions to put something together or repair something, because I cannot figure out why A goes into D and so forth. This is one reason why I cannot do without Martin. He can repair, fix or assemble anything on earth. Instructions? Nah, not for him. He can just look at something and figure it out. Not only that, he does it in such a way, that makes me feel really dull. It would take me hours to assemble just about anything. Heaven forbid that I should try to glue a pipe, unstop the garbage disposal, or hang a ceiling fan. I almost electrocute myself trying to change a lightbulb! Today, is a perfect example.
This morning, as I was waiting to go and get Martin from the hospital, Becky called and invited Aunt Cheryl and me to breakfast. Such a nice breakfast too, pancakes and sausage and diet coke. Well, diet coke and vegetarian sausage for me. Anyway, as I was eating, I noticed that the Christmas gift I gave Little Joe was not out anywhere. I asked Becky where it was and she said"over there somewhere" meaning still in the box in the dining room. The gift is a Jimmy Jump-up. It is a baby seat that hangs from a doorway with a large spring on top, and when the baby sits in it, he can jump up and down. Little Joe is big enough for it now, so I thought it would be a good idea to try it out. Becky told me to wait for another day, as it wasn't put together, but I told her to "just take it out and put it up. It's easy." She is good natured, so she got the box out, opened it, and dumped straps, tubes, a cloth bucket seat and other items on the table. It looked rather daunting, but hey, I'm a grown woman, and this is only a Johnny Jump-up. She started assembling the maze of items, and then I told her I would take over. Here is where I usually get into trouble. The tubes, straps and cloth seat refused to go together. I couldn't figure out how to get the straps into the seat to fit into the hanger on the top to evenly come together to go onto the large spring clip that holds the thing onto the doorway. I tried and tried, and finally almost got it right. Problem is, that the front straps were much longer than the back straps, and I couldn't get the top straps to fasten onto the hanger. The tubes were supposed to slide through a top pocket around the top of the seat, while holding the straps. I swear, I put that stupid thing together at least 15 times, each time with something not right. My fingers were getting sore, my temper getting short and the desire to throw the whole thing outside was almost overwhelming! Becky calmly suggested that I put it up and try again some other time, and I let her know that now the project was PERSONAL! No stupid baby toy was getting the best of me! Looking at the once again disassembled pile of items that should by now be swinging and jumping happily with Little Joe, I resolved that I would get it right. Then Aunt Cheryl quietly said, "the toy loops go in the front, and this goes here and that goes there". In less than two minutes, she had assembled the entire thing. You see, she has common sense. It made sense to her that the items should line up A to Z. She is like her brother Martin, they both have the sense to look at something and see how it should go together.
Not long after that, we left Becky and Little Joe to go and get Martin from the Hospital. Little Joe was jumping and swinging and loving it, and I was feeling resentment that a baby toy could tax my intellegence so much. When we got to the hospital, Martin asked why we had come later than we were going to. Aunt Cheryl said, "well, Aunt Jodie tried to put together the Johnny Jump-up for little Joe and", but she stopped when she saw the look of horror on Martin's face. "You didn't let him jump in it after she got it together, did you?" he said, with his eyes wide and wrinkles of concern mapping his forhead. "I mean, no offense, but that could be really dangerous for Little Joe!" I then, with jut a tiny touch of sarcasm told him that Cheryl figured it out and assembled it. "Oh, well that's okay then. So, does he like it?" said Martin. He knows. After 40 years, he knows that I am assembly challenged. Just put the tools down and step back and no one will get hurt. Hide the super glue, you know, that sort of thing. He actually told someone once that the reason they made super glue remover, is for me. So you see, I need my common sense companion, my honey, or believe me, neither my kids nor grandkids would ever have been able to ride on or use the toys they got over the years. Don't think I am useless though, I am good for writing term papers, doing research, reports, and being a study buddy. I can wipe noses with the best of them, calm troubled feelings, put bandaids on hurts, and bake goodies. I fold clothes really well, and can make a mean bed. Yes I am good for lots of stuff as long as none of that requires assembly, thank goodness!
I spent the rest of the day, thanking my Heavenly Father that Martin is doing well. He will have to be monitored for a few months, and we will have to eventually address the other blocked arteries, but he came home, and I just want to sit and look at him, and think of all the wonderful years we have had and all the time that we will have together on this earth. I know that I have many more opportunities to let Martin use his common sense to assemble or fix something, and the comfort of knowing that I won't have to!
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