I WONDER IF JOB EVER TRIED CLIMBING TREES?

There it stands to this day. The gnarled old Oak still spreading its limbs arrogantly over the small back yard I once called my world. It's been some 70 years since I first tried climbing it. More than once, mind you. But my shaky little legs were no match for that Everest of a tree.

Now as I drive by it I can see it wasn't all that tall. Most of my buddies scampered up with notable success. Successes I recall with particular pangs whenever they did it for Rosemary, Peggy and Barbara. Conquering Everest in front of their admiring eyes would have been such grandeur. Such triumph. But such was not to be.

Why, in all God's green kingdom, did He choose to honor my backyard with that damn tree? I felt like Job even before I had even read Job!

Now, of course, I've aged. Grown wiser. What will be will be is my mantra. I care not a fig for that damned Oak!
OK, maybe a little.

The lesson, though, is what counts. [There have to be lessons to life, right?] In the case of my mighty mean Oak, the lesson is that failure walks with us every step of the way. Little failures, medium failures, horrendous failures. But there's never been a traveler free from failures. [Please, tell me I'm right!]

And yet, the patented comforts aren't much comfort. [No-pain-no-gain or it's-not-the-cards-you're-dealt-but-how-you-play-them-that-counts!] Instead, this might be the time to consider how failures are almost always serendipitous bricks that wedge themselves into your Yellow Brick Road, leading you in directions you might never have taken.

If I had climbed more trees, I might have impressed more neighborhood girls, one day marrying one and never meeting my Joan...! If I had gotten that advertising job I fought for, I might have spent a lifetime hustling products instead of teaching pupils...! If I had been promoted to a higher rank in the Air Force, I might have been given some command which surely would have meant losing the entire Korean War...!

Well, you get the idea. Next, I intend to e-mail my lesson to the White House with all good wishes.