Sometimes we don't think

There is a common expression in Yiddish -- Darf gehn in college. My mother would say it to me a lot.

Whenever I would say something without thinking it through, or do something utterly foolish, she would say: "Darf gehn in college." It meant: "You have to go to college in order to get this smart!" Smart meaning dumb, of course.

My daughter, who is truly exceptionally brilliant, recently gave me an occasion to say to her: "Darf gehn in college."

I will tell you about it, but first a little episode about me!

Lauren was visiting for the weekend. On Saturday morning, I borrowed her car to take a huge box of books to the post office. I huffed and puffed carrying that box up the long ramp to the post office, only to be told the post office closes at 11 a.m. on Saturdays! It doesn't really close then, but they don't let new people get in after 11 a.m.

Then I lugged the box out again, set it on the hood of my daughter's car, unlocked the car, put my purse in with my keys, and went to open the trunk which I discovered was still locked. I thought I had unlocked the car, but apparently I hadn't. I said the Yiddish expression to myself.

Someone loaned me their cell phone (you know I don't carry mine with me) and I called Lauren and told her what I had done. She grumbled a little and said she would come down. It was about a ten-minute walk. She arrived and unlocked the car.

I still had to go to Hy-Vee. Lauren has the idea that I spend an hour at the produce section, and she isn't exactly happy to hang out while I shop.  So this was the statement she made that beat all. She said:

"Look, I'll give you my cell phone, and I'll go home and relax, and then you call me when you're done, and I'll pick you up."

That sounds fine on the surface, doesn't it?

Of course, that wouldn't work at all. If she left me her cell phone, and I called her to pick me up, I would have her phone. She wouldn't have her phone. If I called, she wouldn't hear it ring.  Maybe it wouldn't ring. If it did ring, I would have to answer it.

Lauren wouldn't know when to come get me. I would be stranded at Hy-Vee with groceries and Lauren's cell phone! It might have been a long time before it occurred to her that I was missing. Who knows when she would she have realized that she didn't have her phone to hear it ring and answer! She might never have come to pick me up!

Can you think of any unthinking idea that beats Lauren's -- or even equals it!

And after all that money I spent on her college education!