I came away from work yesterday and jumped right into fixing my car.  The belt broke a few days ago and it’s been sitting waiting for my attention.  It was a long day of painting and cleaning and dusting and working and I wanted the car job to be fast and easy.  It wasn’t.  And, just so we’re clear from the beginning, I didn’t get it fixed.

Seems that the designers of the Plymouth Neon were residents of Hades and wanted nothing better than to make a backyard mechanic feel stupid and incapable.  I tried loosening here and there, twisting this and grunting over that.  But I could not get that belt on.  I called on my son to come help me.  He’s mechanical and can fix lots of things but we couldn’t figure out how to get this done.

Frustrated, tired, dirty, sore we finally gave up and called it a day.

We were both already tired and dirty and sore from the work we had done during the day.  Then we added this frustration to it and walked into the house defeated, and together.

The reality of humanity is not success on success, victory to victory, kings of all we survey.  We, in our finite wisdom, our limited strengths and vision, our capacity for stupidity, find failure much more likely than success.  That’s why God gave us each other.  That’s why we walk with a family.  That’s why we marry and love and laugh.

Together, we can fail and still find meaning.  Together, we can grow and learn and believe in something greater.  Together, we can accomplish so much more than we can alone.

That is where the beauty of life lies.