In recent years, I have noticed all manner of things in the world just cain’t stay in their proper shape. Hills keep gettin’ higher and roads keep gettin’ longer the more miles I walk. It used to be a short little trek into Round Top when I first moved onto this place of mine fifty years ago and now they have done turned the trip into a regular marathon.

I blame it on the county commissioners. They keep running over the roads with them big ol’ graders. It’s no surprise they have stretched them all out of shape.

How is a person supposed to plan anything when the world is liable to up an’ change at the drop of a hat? Even natural laws cain’t stay the same. Things that were easy to pick up when I was young now put a real strain on my back. It’s a good deal harder just gettin’ out of bed. I’d like to know who had the bright idea of turnin’ up all the gravity. If I could get my foot off the ground I give ‘em a stiff kick in the pants.

I’ll never understand why they changed the focus on the TV screen or turned down the volume on my radio. Both things worked just fine before they adjusted ‘em.

Change, change, change. It’s enough to drive you to distraction. Lately it has got real personal. Some yahoo broke into my house and moved all my stuff around. I cain’t find half of it and the other half is further away than it was when I put it down.

People ought to leave my things alone.

And what about all this fat they put in this modern food. Why I useta could eat all the food I wanted and stay skinny as a rail. Nowadays, food that looks the very same as that old food has give me a belly the size of a rodeo barrel. Whose idea was that? An them dyes they put in things is turnin’ my beard grey. It just ain’t right.

Why cain’t they just leave things alone and let an old man age gracefully?

Now that sounds plumb silly don’t it? I sound like an old fool avoiding the circumstances of his old age. Of course they didn’t change gravity. I’m just gettin’ old and weak. The radio is just as loud as it ever was, I just cain’t hear. Sure sounds foolish for a body to go fussin’ at the universe about things he cain’t change.

But is that any different than what folks do most all the time?

How many times have you heard people complain about their lives, saying that this problem or that circumstance is the reason they’re not happy. We all like to blame the world around us for the parts of our lives that don’t work out.

A long time ago, I think I musta been in my 120’s, I realized that if I was goin’ to let my circumstances make me unhappy, then I was goin’ to be miserable all the time. After all, human beings always have problems. It’s one part of life that never changes no matter how much money or success we accumulate.

I have met a few people in my long life that lived through hard times much worse than I have ever experienced and still were able to stay cheerful and productive. I wondered how they did it and one day... one old boy let me in on the secret.

It was durin’ the depression and I was hitchhikin’ over to California...I don’t remember what for...and this old fellar drivin’ a blue 1932 Ford picked me up at a gas station out in the middle of the Arizona desert.

Anyways, we was drivin’ along, hadn’t gone no more than a few miles, when “BAM,” a tire blew out and the old guy almost lost the handle on that big gas hog. He nursed it over onto the shoulder and got out. I could see in his eyes that it had scared him and made him mad but it wasn’t ten seconds after we stopped that he looks over at me and says, “This is some beautiful country isn’t it son? I probably wouldn’t have gotten to take a good look at it if that tire hadn’t blown.”

I thought that was kind of an odd reaction. The country looked pretty bare and sorry to me and I was none too happy to have picked up a ride that made less than five miles before dumping me back on the scalding pavement.

“You want some help with the spare?” I asked.

“Well son,” he replied “I don’t exactly have a spare.” I didn’t want to hear that. I had spent six hours waiting for the ride he’d given me and at least that wait had been in the shade. I started to mutter and shake my head.

“Yesterday” he continued “I came upon a car broken down on the road over by Yuma and I loaned ‘em my spare,” he chuckled. “ Wouldn’t you just know I’d need that tire today.”

Now it was my opinion that he was a mite too cheerful considering the circumstances. It was so hot I was thinkin’ about goin’ to Hell just so I could cool off. My feet smelled like barbecue. The Vitalis in my hair was poppin’ like grease on a griddle. I mean it was hot and I was mighty upset.

But our sorry situation didn’t seem to make much difference to that happy fella. He just kept laughin’ and bein’ cheerful until finally I said. “You know mister, I don’t see what’s so great about have a flat tire in the middle of a hot desert.”

He studied me real careful for a minute then said. “Well son, I don’t know what’s good about it either, but I’m lookin’ to find out.”

This seemed pretty dang stupid to me and I was about to say something nasty when he asked me a question.

“Young man, have you ever heard of the flat tire method for obtaining enlightenment?”

I had, of course, never heard of such a thing. I had studied a little Buddhism and a little Taoism in my day. I had even dabbled in a little Hindu philosophy to go along with my Southern Baptist upbringing. After all, you get around to almost everything when you live to be 120 years old. But, I had never heard of any path to enlightenment that had anything to do with flat tires and I told him so.

“Well,” he said, “It’s like this. Have you ever noticed that suffering comes from resisting what happens to you in the world? I mean, if something happens and you just accept it, you don’t feel bad.”

He paused for a minute to let that sink in and then went on. “Surrender is a wonderful thing. I’ve learned that the more I accept what happens, whether good or bad, the happier I am. In fact, these days I look forward to trouble because I’ve found that the speed with which I recover my good attitude after a bad thing happens is a good indication of my overall enlightenment.”

Now he was starting to lose me. “You’re saying that if I can get happy real quick after I have a flat tire that I am getting closer to God? That can’t be right.” I protested.

“Well, maybe not God. I think God stays close to us no matter what...but closer to peace, closer to self-awareness...yes.

“When that tire blew, both of us had the same reaction; anger, disappointment, frustration...but since I have recognized a flat tire as an opportunity instead of a problem, my upset was short lived. Very quickly I was able to notice the beautiful landscape and that led to this interesting conversation with you.

“If I hadn’t known about the 6-ply path...”

“The what?”

“Oh that’s just what I call it...you know, life...where the rubber meets the road. Anyway, if I didn’t know about the flat tire method of obtaining enlightenment, I’d be cursing and muttering and all upset just like you are...and what would be the point of that? All of your anger isn’t going to fix that tire or get us out of the hot sun.”

Not long after that, we got picked up by a nice family from Alabama but I never forgot that conversation. At first, it was just a way to deal with flat tires, but after a while I started using the flat tire method of enlightenment on all kinds of problems...money problems, relationship problems, problems on the job...and it worked every time.

Nowadays, I don’t try to avoid my problems. Sure, I may be goin’ deaf, but think of all the stupid comments I don’t have to hear.

Every flat tire happens on the road to enlightenment...and that road has some mighty pretty scenery.