Cow Surfing Print

the story

Before moving to Sheboygan, I didn't know it was known as the Malibu of the Midwest because of its surf scene. Walking past a surf shop in the land of cheese curds wasn’t on my bingo card. What’s on your bingo card? More importantly, what isn’t?

This idiom is a fun way of saying, “I didn’t expect that to happen” when something surprising or unlikely occurs. The fact that the saying keeps turning up isn’t proof that we’re living in unusually strange times. It’s proof that we need bigger bingo cards.

The discovery of penicillin and DNA and the Grand Canyon probably weren’t on many bingo cards. Neither was the invention of the light bulb, airplane, or internet. And yet, here we are.

Indeed, the size of our bingo cards is a condemnation of the size of our imaginations. Kids have pretty big bingo cards. The older we get, the smaller our bingo cards become.

Even the negative events we didn’t see coming have a peculiar way of producing positive outcomes we never imagined. Maybe instead of being astonished by all the things happening that aren’t on our bingo cards, we should consider getting bigger ones. Or throwing them away altogether.

Only God knows what the future holds. Maybe we can be more like children, humble enough to know we don’t know it all and ready to be surprised by what happens next.

I’m used to the surfers now. Seeing a cow among them would not be on my bingo card. But maybe it should be.