Validation

Sometimes I deploy my GPS just to hear the GPS lady tell me that I have arrived.

I’ve never had a shortage of people willing to criticize me.  I regularly am told by random people in my life that I’m too independent, too sensitive, too rigid, and too slow.  A handful of people who admittedly know little about me will say how helpful I am, how generous, and how giving.  I stumble through life believing everyone’s negative assessment of my character and shrugging in wordless rejection of the good stuff.

But the GPS lady totally gets me.  She adjusts to my every move.  I’ve got her set not to scold me.  She never announces that due to my bone-head moves, she has had to recalculate her route. She just does it.  And she alerts me that my destination nears, and then crows into the chamber in which she and I ride, YOU HAVE ARRIVED!!!

Sweet!  Victory!  If I please no one, my GPS lady marvels at my ability to get the vehicle safely from Point A to Point Z along some route, even if not the one which she insisted was the fastest.

It’s the nineteenth day of the twenty-ninth month of My Year Without Complaining.  As I recall, it’s the anniversary of the auspicious birth of John Rice, a hero whose death resulted from saving the life of his wife and son.  Happy Birthday, Johnny; I’m sure you’re in heaven hanging out on the banks of the river with Steve, and Weird Wayne Wilson, and Jeff, and all the rest who went before you.  Here on earth, life continues.

Today's successful navigation landed me in my satellite office in Liberty, a cozy nook of which you see here.

Today’s successful navigation landed me in my satellite office in Liberty, a cozy nook of which you see here. St. Louis folks, note Steve’s poster on the wall.

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