I have had some strange thoughts going through my mind upon waking, but maybe none as strange as this morning. I woke up thinking about elevators.
I used to work in an 18-story building and once got stuck on a stalled elevator between the 10th and 11th floors. That experience taught me never to enter an elevator without first visiting the restroom. (Smile!)
I worked another building that had an elevator that waited until after the doors were opened to adjust to the floor level. It would be several inches below or above the floor when the doors opened, and you never knew whether it would adjust or just stay like that. I got a lot of coward-inspired exercise taking the stairs!
I remember waiting in the lobby of Boise City Hall for an elevator when a couple came up to me and asked, “Do these elevators go up?” (How exactly do you respond to that? “No, they only go down?”)
I have been in two notable elevators. We took a trip to Chicago a couple months after 9/11. Our hotel was right next to the John Hancock building. After we settled in that evening, we found out the Hancock observation deck was open at night, so we took a long elevator ride up to the 98th floor. I loved that deck, although I must say eating dessert at The Cheesecake Factory in the basement afterwards did make me a bit nervous.
A few days later the Sears Tower re-opened, having shut down after 9/11. So, we took another long elevator ride, to the 102nd floor this time. There was a video playing in this elevator showing the building being constructed during the long ride up. I guess they did not want you to get bored on the way.
I have no idea why I woke up thinking about elevators this morning. Usually when I think such thoughts there is a spiritual lesson for me to learn or to share, but I cannot find anything spiritual this morning in elevators.
Be that as it may, perhaps I just needed to laugh. The last couple weeks have been difficult and the news in my inbox seems all bad, so laughing about elevators is good medicine for my soul this morning!
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” [Proverbs 17:22 HCSB]
