Do you know what a “Bad Hop” is? No, it isn’t a boring 50’s dance, or something from an injured bunny. If you know baseball, you know what a Bad Hop is. If you have played baseball or softball, you have probably experienced one. I was always an infielder. 2nd base was my preference, but I always seemed to get stuck at 3rd because of my cat-like reflexes and my rocket arm. (maybe I’m kidding) What I didn’t like about 3rd base was that the ball comes down the line fast. There is little time for reaction, and a Bad Hop can mess you up.
A “Bad Hop” is when the ball is bouncing towards you, then suddenly hits something that causes it to change its bounce pattern and alter the trajectory. Usually right at your face, neck, or *eh-hem* lower. Sometimes you can react quickly enough to adjust. Sometimes it is impossible, and the Bad Hop emerges victorious. Black eyes, bloody lips, jammed fingers, etc. come when you can’t adjust fast enough.
A couple weeks ago my EC caught a Bad Hop at that dangerous store Bed Bath & Beyond. (It’s dangerous because there is always stuff to buy there.) She was milling around and saw a clearance rack with a beverage dispenser on the top shelf. One of these:
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| The Culprit |
It is one of those glass beverage dispensers that you see at RS and YW activities. I’ve heard that if you own more than one, you automatically are called to be on the RS Meeting Committee. The are glass, and heavy.
Anyway, she saw the dispenser and reached up to find a price tag, when she touched it, the glass lid slipped off the top of the dispenser and fell off. It hit my EC right on the bridge of her nose. But somehow she managed to catch the lid before it hit the ground. Amazing reflexes, but 2 seconds too late. (I was not there to witness the attack, but she took pictures.)
The force of the impact broke her nose, and the skin on the bridge of her nose split open and started to bleed. The employees working there saw her with blood streaming down her face, sat her down, and found something to try and stop the bleeding. And then they had her fill out the CYA paperwork. She got things under control, and came home.
Did I mention this was on my birthday? It was sad because she felt terrible – not just because she was hurt, but that we spent the evening with icepacks and Advil. She is a real trouper. The next two weeks were a veritable rainbow of facial colors. Black eyes, turning purple then green then yellow, with smatterings of red and orange.
Here we are a month later, and she needs to go to an ENT to get some x-rays because it is still causing her problems, and we need a specialist to take a look.
Why the long story? Just to illustrate that she took a Bad Hop, and the effects still linger.
Bad Hops are unavoidable, and sometimes unpreventable. They come with baseball, they come with life. It gets especially difficult when those Bad Hops interfere with what we have planned. You might find this quote a little snarky, but it is one of my favorite:
Sometimes the Bad Hops are isolated incidents, but there are times when the hits just keep on comin‘. It can get so frustrating. And it can feel so unfair.
I was thinking this through earlier today as I was taking one of the FOMLs to the doctor to followup on treatment for a Bad Hop that came his way over a year ago. Right before we left, I found out that a key employee decided not to be an employee anymore with absolutely no notice/no class) Bad Hop for me. And I must admit, I was feeling a little sorry for myself.
However, one of the things that I have noticed with age is that I am getting better at rolling with the Bad Hops and not letting them freak me out as badly. Maybe it is because the older we get, the more experience we have with Bad Hops, and we know that life goes on. Knowing this tempers our reactions. Also, we have a bigger reference library of Bad Hops to compare against. We have taken, and survived, some real hard shots already in this life, and the most recent wave are relatively manageable in comparison.
Perhaps by the time I am older I will be able to just roll with whatever comes my way. Aging with grace makes me think of President Hinckley, whom I still miss. One of his favorite sayings was “Things will work out.” And they do.
Elder Holland quoted President Hinckley a few years ago. “Things will work out” may well be President Hinckley’s most repeated assurance to family, friends, and associates. “Keep trying,” he will say. “Be Believing. Be happy. Don’t get discouraged. Things will work out.” Link: President Gordon B. Hinckley: Stalwart and Brave He Stands.
Things will work out.
Another great tribute to President Hinckley by President Eyring, “Things Will Work Out.”
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One of our family favorites is a quote that is similar (albeit slightly less snarky) to yours above: life is what happens when you’re making plans. It doesn’t deter us from making plans but it also doesn’t knock us down when those plans unavoidably change…and if God is involved those changes will inevitably be for the better.
I hope your EC is doing much better now! So sorry she had to go through that!!
Yeah … getting older certainly helps. What a great reminder, graphic – but great 🙂
What a good reminder. Thank you for this post. My husband and I are stuck in a bad hop rut right now. It feels like one of those moments in life when you just don’t know how you are going to make it through it all. I know we will only be better people when all is said and done and we come out on the other side but man it isn’t easy as we go. This too shall pass though, hopefully our bad hop passes quickly.
Thank you and yes I’m having a bad hop right now and my faith is lacking and my anger that I thought was gone is not and… Who the heck else knows. But yes, I need to use that lingo and then just hop with it, till it hops back out.
Each bad hop makes us stronger and gives us better insight as to handle the next one . It really will All work out . With our Saviours help
My husband lives by his personal mantra of “It’ll work out, and even if it doesn’t, it’ll still work out.” Usually it means that he’s not going to worry about that PhD application until I get so worried that I end up doing it all for him and so it really does “work out” for him in the end. So, as far as things go that we do have a little bit of say in, it’s probably not the best idea to become non-chalant about whatever the consequences of our apathy may be. As far as things completely out of our control, like “bad hops,” it is a talent indeed to be able to 1st -not take it personally, and 2nd -deal with it in a positive way.
I think “bad hop” would be a GREAT replacement for the legal term “act of God,” which is a horrible term to begin with, but I guess there’s always got to be someone else to blame right?
I was wondering if she did or didn’t buy the dispenser.
So I guess she didn’t buy the dispenser. I wonder how much it was on clearance… I hope she feels better soon and gets everything fixed without too much more trouble.
Great post. I am still waiting to get old enough to be able to roll with the “bad hops”.
Too bad you don’t live in Utah. My dad is a really good ENT. 🙂
Such a great post! I needed the reminder to just keep moving forward and not let the bad hops get me down. 😀
I hate it when my EC gets hurt. I’d much rather get hurt myself (at least there’s less whining 🙂 ) The worst thing is not having a good story to tell about the injury. Your point about the bad hops is taken, though. They happen to everyone. We just need to learn to take them as they come.
Nice to have you back.
Less whining?!?! I doubt it. just sayin….
My whining never seems like whining to me 🙂 There’s no doubt she’s tougher than I am, though.
MMM, it’s good to be back. Luckily my business trip overseas pretty much coincided with your guest blog posts. They were good, but I save all my best comments for your posts.
Those are your “best” comments? 😉
You should see my worst ones.
My daughter plays third base. She has had so many “bad hops” that she has requested a fielder’s face mask for Christmas. 😀
I hope your wife told those employees to take their CYA paperwork and take a hike!
So if your age and progress are average, I have a decade or so more of “freaking out” before I learn to roll with it….If this were a wave analogy, I would be analyzing how to jump the wave. But bad hops, now, there is no seeing that coming. I have always tried to live with a “helmet and padding” on. That rarely works (because I usually have the wrong stuff for the occasion) but the helmet and padding of living obediently softens the blow, eh?
Oh, your poor wife! The pain! The embarrassment. The having to choose clothing that won’t clash with the ever changing facial colors! May she have successful complete healing. It is so nice when one can breathe freely.
Thank you for sharing encouragement in dealing with life’s bad hops.
Had to think about FOML for a minute but figured it out! Love the post.
Yikes! Your poor wife! Glad she’s OK.
I feel like we’ve had several bad hops lately, too. Luckily, we’ve had some homeruns along the way. Chin up, good buddy; )
This is pretty much the exact thing I needed to read today. We got yet another “bad hop” with our house selling adventure… we just found out tonight that the buyer’s lenders have to postpone things for another month, without even a promise that the buyer will indeed get the financing. This process has been one bad hop after another, and I’ll admit, a few times I haven’t handled them gracefully. Things will work out. Things will work out. Breathe.
Nice post MMM, thanks for sharing this. I love your references to President Hinckley’s prophetic words. I hope that your EC’s nose is ok and that she feels better. I’ve had a broken nose before too, and all sorts of facial surgery and the healing takes forever and it is painful and since its on your face it is almost impossible to hide so you have to explain over and over what happened and why…those darn beverage containers! I’ve been trying to roll with things more lately too, hopefully I will get better at it as well. Thanks again for sharing!
Gosh, I hope she learnt her lesson and never goes to Bed, Bath and Beyond again! Hah, no no .. I’m almost slightly addicted to walking around their store too.
One of my favorite sayings is, “It’ll all be fine in the end. If it’s not fine, it’s not the end.”
I’ve noticed something opposite in me. When something big happens, I roll with it pretty well. When something relativity small goes wrong, I am a little less calm. I don’t know why.
One more quote,”if you expect the unexpected, doesn’t that make the unexpected expected?” That way, nothing needs to surprise you.
If I broke my nose, I could justify a little extra “work” while they were at it. I’m sure your EC needs no extras.
I love the President Hinckley quote about things working out, it’s become a mantra for me. My other favorite quote is similar to the one you used in this posting, “If you want to make God laugh tell him your plan.” I think age does bring wisdom and the ability to roll with the “Bad Hops.” I hope your better half gets a much better nose really soon, if not you keep hopping her to the Doc.