One way streets

Like half of the country that day, I waited impatiently for the Season Finale of The Sopranos. After six exciting years of lies, murders, love affairs and visits to the psychiatrist, we were finally going to get answers to the family’s unfinished businesses. Instead, we were left unceremoniously hanging with the blackest screen ever and that uneasy feeling that settles when things end without closure.

That’s life for you: Family dreams are shattered when cancer strikes and your business failed because your partner skipped town with last year’s profit. Relationships end abruptly for no apparent reason. Was it something you said? You betcha. A slip on the road on the way to church.

I’ve been going the wrong way for years, but got caught only last night. I could have crashed. I could have left behind a long string of unaccomplished goals. A kid wondering why his dad never came back from work. The policeman was nice. “I’m not going to give you a ticket today. Drive more carefully next time.”

I put on my blinker, waited until the road was clear, and turned the car around to join all the people that are doing it right.

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