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.

Macho Comedian

I have this weird suspicion that Randall Mario Poffo, better known as Macho Man Randy Savage, really wanted to be a stand-up comedian, but felt compelled to follow in the family business, which was wrestling.




Both his father and brother were wrestlers. This probably prompted Macho Man to hide what his family would consider to be a lesser profession.
You could argue that Macho Man actually wanted to be a baseball player, since that's what he was doing before he threw his shoulder out and became a wrestler, but the problem with that argument is that if you look at Macho Man you can tell he's a natural athlete, so being a minor league baseball outfielder was probably something that came naturally to him, and the things that come natural to us are rarely the things that we have a passion for.

My guess is that he tried the baseball thing to avoid falling into the footsteps of his father, but when he had no choice but to become a wrestler he found ways to work in his true passion.

How many of you have a career path that was influenced by your parents?
How many of you work where the tasks you're faced with are simple or the solutions come naturally to you?