Traffic. We all agree it’s bad and getting worse. Meg and I have started to avoid Highway 64 between Avon Park and Zolfo Springs because it’s getting too congested and dangerous with people passing and so on. And yes, you heard that right; between Avon Park and Zolfo Springs. They’ve approved 8300 new homes inside the city limits of Lake Wales, which means about 24,000 new people, and the only road construction north to Disney, west to Brandon, south to Clewiston and East to Vero Beach is right here in Lake Wales.

If John the Baptist showed up today talking about making paths straight, I’d be tempted to send him out to 60 & 27. (If you know how to navigate that intersection right now, I’m impressed. But we all know it could change at any time.) Or maybe I’d send him to Champion’s Gate.

For many years, decades, we took our acolytes to the Acolyte Festival. That always began with a service in our cathedral followed by an afternoon and evening at Wet ‘n Wild, a water park in Orlando that is now closed. And as each of our four children hit about age 7, I would take them up to the Mach 5 Alpha Flight. It had, by far, the longest slides in the park. There were three tracks, so you could race, and you went down on a foam mat with handles on it. While it started pretty high, it wasn’t very steep and it wound a long, long way down until at the end it sent you skittering across a pool.

All four of our kids went through the same process. We’d go up the long set of ramps and steps with them to the top. They would be in a detached fog. Then, when it came time to go, they’d get scared, protest, maybe cry a little. I’d encourage them, tell them how much they would love it. I’d point out the smaller kids who were doing it. Eventually just tell them to hang on and shove them down the track. Then I’d go on another track, knowing I’d get to the bottom first because, well, gravity.