I took the green ladder to the car wash. Or maybe I didn’t take it there but it was there beside my car, getting washed instead of my car, nothing to do with a car at the carwash.
Ladders are a path to nowhere. They end abruptly and then you can only go down. Maybe change a lightbulb or paint a ceiling, maybe climb onto the roof or some other high up place. But then what? And what if you shift your weight wrong? Broken ankle, busted nose, fractured wrist, cracked head.
I watched the ladder get washed. I felt the spray of thin wisps of chemical water through my T-shirt and wondered why the ladder was at the carwash, why I was at the carwash, inside the carwash.
Cleaning my path forward, only as far as I could see. Without my glasses. Which is not far. Clearing the road ahead just a little bit. Because I just had a birthday and the year ahead has arrived.