God Laughs

Friday,

October 31, 2014

Santa Rosa, CA

 

Okay, maybe I should ease back on planning

 

I admit it. I tend to plan. I find a good plan is comforting. It’s nice to know where I need to be, when, and what I’m supposed to do.

Friends tell me I tend to overdo it and might want to consider at least occasionally going without a plan. They might have a point. I plan to do that.

I think it was either the great travel planner Caesar,  or maybe it was Eisenhower –it might have been Rick Steves –who said, when planning his first sojourn (see, I’m already speaking the language) to France, “No plan survives the first encounter with the enemy.” I’m mindful of that, but don’t worry; I have a contingency plan should that happen.

I’m also mindful of the old Yiddish proverb, “Men plan and God laughs.”   Personally, I think the Cosmic Comedian still works with an old day planner and frequently adds a handwritten note in the margin “Needs more irony.”

It’s a bad habit.

 

So I get it. I’m not naive. (I told ya I speak the language) I fully expect a general strike will be declared (as I hear they often are) just about the time the wheels of my Air France flight touches down at Charles de Gaulle.

I have a plan for that too.