It’s Friday; but Sunday’s coming

It’s not a time management tip; it’s an attitude

“It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming.”

That’s not a time management tip; that’s an attitude to see you through the worst of times.

This week, watching the video clip of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore come crashing down and tumbling into the river has been a grimly hypnotic experience. No matter which news program you switch to, there it is: ship crashing, girders snapping, pavement plummeting.

Workers conscientiously filling potholes on the Key Bridge lost their lives; some of their bodies have not been recovered from the icy river.

That’s a hard visual image to shake: decent men labouring in the dark of night to keep the bridge smooth and safe for daytime traffic, jolted from their work to realize they are falling, to drown. Their families’ pain is inconceivable.

It’s going to be a long, long year for a lot of business that used that bridge, most particularly companies that hauled hazardous chemicals and dangerous goods which are not allowed in the tunnel. Shipping logistics and Truckers’ schedules will be thrown into a quandry.

The United States, one observer noted, “has been divided again, right along the Mason-Dixon line.”

“The impact is going to be epic,” says Don Taylor, author of “Stories from the Road.”  

“At the foot of the bridge in the north side is one mother of an industrial commercial park.  By a mother of a park, I’m talking two huge Amazon facilities, a massive FedEx facility and an ethanol offloading facility.  

“The entire Baltimore harbour is basically a cul-de-sac, with only one way in and out, which is now effectively blocked.  To make matters worse, it’s one of only 11 deep water ports in the US east coast, and it’s one of only two ports in the US equipped to handle automobiles, so vehicular imports and exports are going to be a mess for quite a while, as all the vehicles now have to be moved to Long Beach, California for shipment overseas. All the inbound ships have to transit the Panama Canal to divert to Long Beach.” 

There will be more to write about supply chain disasters and business failures in the months ahead, as both are sure to occur. Today being Good Friday, though, it seems a very appropriate day to recall the words from one of my favourite sermons of all time, by S.M. Lockridge: “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming.”

“It’s Friday.

The World is winning, and Evil’s grinning.

It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming….

It’s Friday.

Hope is lost; death has won.

Sin has come, and Satan’s laughing.

It’s Friday; but Sunday’s coming.”

It’s ironic this week, to think that my favourite observation about Easter came from a man who owned a shipping company, Nick Sofraniou of Nick’s Shipping in Toronto:

“The meaning of Easter? Life kicks you in the ass, and you get back up. That’s Easter.”

Even during the hardest, bleakest, most painful times, it’s worth keeping Lockridge’s words in mind:

“It’s Friday. But Sunday’s coming.”