“The Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are
worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.” St. Luke 10:41-42
As I was
driving home on Tuesday evening, I was intrigued by the dark red car in front
of me. The driver had obviously
discovered my favorite shortcut to get around the lights on Baron Cameron, and
he was pushing on at quite a clip. When
I pulled up behind him at the stoplight, I took one glance at his vanity
license plate and nodded to myself. It
said IMNAHRY—the driver had taken out all the spaces and most of the
vowels—rather appropriately—but it all fit.
IMNAHRY-some
days I wonder if that’s not really the motto of Northern Virginia. The driver may just have been trying to keep
people out of the left hand land—INAHRY, so you’d better get out of the
way. Perhaps he liked to taunt policemen
with speed guns. Maybe he was wearing
his great list of responsibilities like a badge of honor, as we all sometimes
do. “How are you?” “Very busy,” we sigh, as if so very much depended on
us. Maybe the driver was just trying to
be a comic, or a prophet, pointing out all the bustle and wondering what in the
world it’s all worth.
My mind went
back to a country song that’s almost 25 years old now, but whose words haven’t
aged a bit.
“I’m in a hurry to get things done;”
Alabama crooned.
I rush and rush until life’s no fun.
All I really gotta do is live and
die.
But I’m in a hurry and don’t know
why.”
