The Old Woman and The Parking Lot

"It's not a perfect metaphor..." -Dr. Horrible It was raining that day I left the gym. The tarmac hosted the usual cast of rainy day characters: people running through the parking lot, people ducking under newspapers and magazines to avoid getting wet, people who remembered their umbrellas, and those people who didn't mind getting wet. In the mix, I watched a little car turn into the parking lot and head towards the front row closest to the gym. What happened next is something we've all seen before or have experienced ourselves. Across from where I was standing I could see the perfect parking spot, right across from the entrance to the gym, ideal on any day. "This guy lucked out," I thought to myself. However, as the car approached it turned prematurely, and ended up in a space farther down the lot. And, as it turned, it revealed another car behind it. Having turned prematurely, the first car unknowingly yielded the better parking spot to another car. When my parents bought the land where they built the house I grew up in, there was only a small pear orchard. The old woman who owned the land had originally purchased it when her husband was still alive. They planned on retiring on this lot of land, building a cottage, and spending their summers by the beach. But one day her husband got sick. Treatment for his illness drained some of the money they spent a lifetime saving, and then he died. She still had enough money to build the cottage and retire, but she didn't. Instead the old woman sold the land and moved away to live with her daughter. These stories are dance partners.