Last week, the annual meeting of the Arkansas Criminal Defense Lawyers was held in Little Rock. After two days and nights of education and eating, I decided I needed to cleanse myself and get back to nature.
A friend of mine was passing through on the way to his daughter’s graduation, and was willing to go with me to Lake Ouachita and rough it for a night. The weather outlook was a little unsettled, to say the least. There was no question we would meet with some precipitation, the only question was how bad would it be. That is the way my 2014 “Lord of the Flies” adventure started.
Before turning off to the boat ramps, we stopped to get supplies for the evening. We didn’t need much, but food is always good to have when you’re out on an island. When we went in, the cupboard was bare. They were out of everything, and we ended up with nothing more than a loaf of bread, some chips, some beef jerky, and a six pack of Vienna sausages. It had been a while since I’d eaten Vienna sausages, and by themselves, they tasted like congealed fat with the slightest hint of a meat product flavor. Although, for the record, they tasted very good just after midnight when they were sandwiched between two pieces of smashed white bread.
We didn’t get on the lake until sometime after 6:00 p.m. and it started raining as we headed for the island. When we arrived, we unloaded and put up the tarp that would serve as our “protection” from the elements. The weather cleared and we went out on the boat for a run around the lake at sundown. By the way, we bought some of the new Coors Light with orange stuff that comes in the ten ounce can, and it’s not very good.
As night fell, the moon was high, and the lake and all was beautiful. A few hours after sundown, the moon found itself hidden behind the clouds. That was the last time we saw the moon. Having cell phone in hand, you would’ve thought we would’ve checked the weather, but we didn’t. In the end, I’m happy that we didn’t because we would’ve worried too much. We had no idea a storm was fixing to roll across the lake and our little island.
I went to sleep around 2:00 a.m. and woke up about 4:00 a.m. to a very active sky full of lightning. Most of it was far off on the horizon, but that changed quickly. The storm rolled in with lighting crashing all around us. There were a couple of times that I feared the wind was going to blow us off the island which was, incidentally, perched about 20 feet off the water. It made for a good view, but not the best place to be in a raging thunderstorm.
The tarp soon ripped and was functionally useless as protection. We ripped the tarp down, sat next to each other with the tarps pulled over our heads and faces, and simply waited for daylight. As I sat there whining about what was happening, it suddenly hit me. What I was experiencing at that very moment was really not all that bad. It was chilly, I was muddy, and it was raining with electricity shooting through the air. The thing was, moment by moment, it wasn’t all that bad. I started to focus on the present and not what was coming in the future. Anyway, the sky lightened enough to see, and we broke camp, loaded the boat, and headed home. A couple hours later, I was in bed recounting my heroic adventure to Patti who simply looked at me and said “You’re an idiot.” Then she smiled and got me a Diet Coke.
I enjoyed the adventure, but that may be it for me for the summer as far as roughing it. It gave me good memories and perhaps, more importantly, reminded me that one of the great secrets in life is to live in the minute and try not to spend all your time fretting over what’s coming. Everything is easier to take in small bites. Life is the same way, especially for those of us camping way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
Bill James is a criminal defense attorney and co-founder of the James Law Firm with offices in Little Rock, Conway and Fayetteville, Ark. He may be reached at Bill@JamesFirm.com.