Happy Eponymous Day!

Howdy.

Welcome to most daylight savings timey update ever.  I have one hour less to fritter away today, so let's get right to the meat of it.  Chew the fat.  Spit out the gristle.  Wait, that last one isn't a saying.  It's just gross.


Anyhoo, it's currently Saturday morning in the book.  Here's what it looked like when we first visited:

Today is, as the title of the book might suggest, a day where some stuff is going to happen.  But first, exposition: Our heroine India McGreevy has come out of a trying week a bit worse for wear.  Noticing this, her mom has decided to take action the only way she knows how: By making stuff up as she goes along.  Her "plan" begins with a pep talk that's very little consolation to a forlorn and disconsolate India.  Then, to buy some time while she thinks of an actual plan, Elizabeth McGreevy sends India out on a fool's errand (which is a term I've always felt is redundant).

Here's India walking to said fool's errand:

Note the overwhelming enthusiasm.  This is the appropriate response to any activity in the "for your own good" category.

When I was a wee bairn, every adult looked confident, well-adjusted, and fully capable of anything and everything.  Adulthood was then (and in most cases today, still is) a mystery to me.  But I pretty much knew that part of that mysterious transition into grownuptitude involved a debriefing in which anything you'd ever need to know was told to you.  Afterward, it was just a matter of reaching into your limitless library of practical information and applying that knowledge to the situation in front of you.  No fuss, no muss.  So far as I knew, problems were solved this way.  Obstacles were overcome.  And certainty and confidence were every adult's two best friends.

This, it turns out, is a THRONE OF LIES.

Adults almost never know the answers.  To anything.  But one of the BILLIONS of crappy realities you have to face as an adult is that, a lot of the time, you just have to deal with whatever comes up.  The answers aren't right there for the taking, either.  Most of the time, they're amorphous.  There's no one to make it all better when you're an adult.  You're the one who has to fix stuff and solve problems and make it all better.  And that responsibility can be terrifying.

As a kid, I thought adults were all fearless.  Now, as a (partial) adult, I realize they're not fearless at all.  Reality can be a terrifying place and sometimes the appropriate response is fear.  But adults face it every day, regardless of fear and uncertainty.  And that's the definition of bravery.

There's a quote I always liked.  It's attributed to John Wayne, but who really knows.  Regardless of who said it originally, I strongly suggest you to read the following in John Wayne's voice:

"Courage isn't a lack of fear.  Courage is being afraid and saddling up anyway."

Well, if you're an adult who has to saddle up this week, I tip my hat to you, pardner.

Cheers.