One of the questions this week asked, as always, if there is a headline that stuck out to us this week. Well, the headline that sticks out to me is one I just saw on WDIV Channel 4 Detroit, which is… there is a little bit of a phenomenon happening where people are sitting in their cars longer and longer and longer, whether it’s sitting in front of their house, not going in for sometimes upwards of an hour, or whether it’s driving to parking lots, or just pulling over somewhere and sitting there for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour.
And the reason that headline struck me as so odd… is because my sister — I had just — this is funny. I just called my sister and I said, “Hey, what are you doing?” And she said, she said to me, “Hey what are YOU doing?” And I said, I said, “I’m just sitting in the Meijer parking lot. What are you doin’?” And she asked which one, and I told her which one, and she said, “Oh, I’m over at the other one sitting in the parking lot. Just doin’ a lot of parking lot sitting today, aren’t we?” So, I guess we are.
You know, and what the article was saying, is that so many people are going at a hundred all the time. Whether it’s physically, mentally, whatever, we’re just non-stop in our heads, in our bodies. So, a lot of people, when they get home, before they go into their house, whether they live with people and they need a moment before it’s time to face the wife and kids, or whether they live alone and they just need a moment to decompress in that car, before they walk inside and see the dishes that need to be done, and the pile of laundry waiting for them, you know?
And the parking lot thing is because so many of us don’t feel safe at home. Either you know, we’re in shared living situations because income issues are so tight, or people are in unhappy marriages, or people are just mamas running from the kids ’cause they feel like they haven’t got to breathe since the kids were born, whatever the case may be, people are pulling over in parking lots and just sitting there checking their emails, scrolling their phones, calling people, talking, you know, just doing whatever, writing lists… you know, just some people are literally just sitting there, and I see them because I’m sitting in the parking lots, too, just staring out into the great unknown. Just a moment to ponder.
I feel like so many of us no longer have time to wonder, or to ponder, or there’s another word called “sonder,” which is when we think about how everybody else has such intricate lives, and how could we all possibly exist in the way that we exist and you know, it feels like it’s just our life, but everyone’s life is just as complicated and intricate as our own, and to take a moment and think about things like that.
I think we all need a little break. Just a little pull over to Meijer parking lot. Maybe get’cha a little custard scoop from the Culver’s that is likely in the parking lot, and chill for a minute. Take a break. If you got nowhere to go, nowhere to be, except for at home doing chores, or, you know, whatever else you’d be doing, give yourself a moment. We all need a moment in this crazy, upside-down world.