We all like to think that life is sort of a straight line proceeding from one achievement to another. In actuality, there are “bumps along the road of life,” diversions, if you will, which are often unpredictable and over which we have little control.

Think of that fall on the ice when you broke your leg. Or what about a relationship you thought was going to last forever but, somehow, got derailed. The truth of the matter is that sometimes bad things can happen to good people. We finally come to the realization that we cannot control everything that happens to us. There can be “bumps in the road.”

When that happens, what happens to us? I think that may be the true measure of character.

Parents, for example, ultimately have to come to grips with reality when they no longer can control their kids. Once kids reach the age of 18, they are pretty much on their own. Yes, they will come home for the holidays and look to you when tuition payment time comes at college. But, in truth, after they reach the “age of majority,” they are largely on their own. Realizing that can be a “speed bump” in parenting.

Sometimes accidents can happen. They teach you defensive driving in high school. But, nothing can prepare you for the guy who runs a red light and T-bones your car in an intersection. Who would have predicted that?

Sometimes, society, as a whole, experiences a bump in the road. Who, for example, thought that today, in Ukraine, we would be seeing images like that of World War II? These things aren’t supposed to happen anymore.

I recall, in my own life, the huge “bump” that my mother went through when she had a stroke. She was a very religious person and couldn’t understand why God would have let such a terrible thing happen to her. I would speak with her about strokes being a part of human life and the aging experience…that they weren’t a matter of faith. Yet, I don’t think that I ever won that argument with her.

It may seem self-evident that unpredictable things can happen to you, But, I think, when they do, many people have a hard time dealing with it.

This may sound trite, but when the unpredictable happens, the words of an old Kenny Rogers’ tune come to mind. In that song, he describes life through the eyes of an old and experienced gambler — “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, and know when to fold ’em…know when to walk away and know when to run.” Though true, the lyrics become more somber when the gambler dies having predicted that sometimes, “the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.”

I love that song, but I have never really liked the gambler’s rather dim view of hope. When you are searching for hope, better to turn to a source like the Book of Psalms — the 23rd Psalm probably being one of the most uplifting, hopeful statements ever written.

When confronted by “bumps in the road,” the vicissitudes of life — we need to have hope. We also need to look for it in the right places.

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.