Trapped in a hotel room because of an unrelenting thunderstorm, we flipped channels for something to watch. Since not much was available, we settled on a really silly movie, Lake Placid. In this movie, Betty White plays Delores Bickerman who leads cows to their deaths as fodder for a crocodile. Someone gets curious as to why Delores’ husband hasn’t been seen in several years and asks about his whereabouts. Stuttering and hesitating, Delores admits the crocodile devoured him. Apparently, she feels sorry enough for the croc that she doesn’t want him destroyed by the authorities, and instead continues to feed the beast.

I thought, “How stupid can this be? The crocodile killer her husband and she will be next!” Deja Vu! I had the unmistakable feeling I’d seen this movie before, but I hadn’t. And in that instant, I thought of all the things in my life that had killed others I knew and yet I continued to participate: drinking, cigarettes, and other things I’d rather not mention. All deadly sooner or later, and yet I continued to feed that “crocodile” in my life, never knowing when it would turn on me and devour me. That was the way it was, but I broke free from those deadly crocodiles, and life is so much better now. It’s amazing what you can get from a bad movie on a rainy afternoon.