The idiot light, as they call them, are the lights on your dash that warn you about things like you are running out of gas, or your oil pressure is falling, or the engine needs to be checked. They are probably the best invention for your car. Especially if you are like me and wouldn’t look at gauges, check oil or listen for noises. I recalled a car that I had borrowed from my parents once. I thought I heard some noises under the hood and felt the car’s motor was working too hard just to go 40 mph. I have a friend that is a mechanic and so I slipped into his garage to have him check it out. This poor guy looked and listened as he agreed that something was wrong. Turns out that the check engine light was on, the oil light was on and the overheated light was on. We just couldn’t see them because my Stepfather had covered them with small pieces of black electrical tape. I couldn’t tell since it blended with the darkness of the unlit board.

While having a conversation with my sister about a complete idiot that she was hanging out with at a time in her life when she was new in town and was looking to make some friends. His name was Alberto and he was a amputee. He had one leg, but he wore a prosthetic leg. That wasn’t the problem though. As the daughter of a man who wore a prosthetic leg, that just didn’t bother me about him. Alberto, or Berto as he preferred to called was a total wreck. He lived with his sister and her 10 kids. He didn’t really have a home he was just mooching off of her. He had little respect for anyone’s home. He would walk around with a cup of coffee spilling it along a trail as he would swing his prosthetic leg around to walk. I would come home with my girlfriend knowing that we could share a steak that was in the fridge, only to find that Berto had come over and eaten it. I told him under no uncertain terms that he was not to spend the night, only to find him there in the middle of the night. Berto didn’t really scare me until my sister had moved out into her own apartment. One night when she had a bed companion, she was awaken by Berto. He had let himself in and was sucking on her big toe while she and her companion slept. She managed to get rid of Berto without her partner waking up and discovering Berto there.

My sister and I were having a great laugh about it. As she let out the last breathe of laughter she asked “why didn’t I see this guy as an idiot?” I thought about the idiot light in my parents dash. My sister saw the red flags. I saw the red flags. The difference was that my sister had turned her idiot light off so she wouldn’t have to see that she was hanging out with a complete weirdo. The only way to have peace about it was to turn the bells off that were warning her that Berto might not be an appropriate friend. I’m sure we do this all the time. It’s how we deal with going against ourselves. Like an auto immune disease, it attacks the good and useful defenses.