I need to stop using my deductive reasoning power for evil

A colleague was telling me about a video chat session he hosts on the weekends. The team talk about conspiracy facts and fallacies and facts. He was telling me about the federal govt’s involvement in illegal body part harvesting.

“And that’s not all,” he continued, as his thought train gathered steam, “last weekend we featured people whose family members were held hostage by the medical field during the Covid pandemic lockdowns.”

He started getting more animated. “The stories were horrifying. People were given medication against their will while they were sleeping. Many died while the pharmacological companies made money off the doses. And even for those who weren’t given medication, they were put on respirators knowing they didn’t offer help. They died for nothing.”

I tied the threads together.

“And how many who died unnecessarily were organ donors?”

I could see the thought train detailing.

“Ah! I hadn’t even thought of that!”

I nodded my head. “Things don’t happen by accident. Maybe you’ve another topic for a future session?”

I’m watching a new TV series and the sum of some of the most memorable moments of my personal history are nearly summed up in one parenthetical phrase:

(80s music plays)

It’s kinda like that, isn’t it?

A decade of memorable moments tied up in a single sentence.

Makes one wonder how future historians will look back at the big items of today:

(2020s news in the background)

Rushing into the future, one decade at a time.

Today is a day filled with blessings and adventure.

Of course, it’s how one looks at things.

A few weeks ago my dying truck refused to stay running in cold weather. Stupid thing. I bought a second vehicle and wouldn’t you know it, I got a crack in the windshield by a flying rock on day #2 of driving in to the office. That’s what happens when we start pressuring folks back into the office instead of letting them work comfortably at home.

I had to walk over a mile in 30-something degree weather to get to a food place just now. That’s because the auto dealership I went to today is making me wait 4 hours instead of the 1.5 hours they originally promised. And their vending machine has nothing but junk food. What a day. What else can go wrong?

…OR THIS…

I am blessed to have had a vehicle that has been faithfully taking me to work and pleasure spots for well over a decade now. The poor little guy needs help and I need to have a backup vehicle. Thankfully I have set aside cash and have the opportunity to purchase a second vehicle, and still have cash to have repair work done on the ol’ gorilla.

I can purchase a second vehicle because I’m employed. My employer has generosity allowed me the opportunity to work from home for months. Still, my team members whom I really like are excited to see all of us in person. I’m blessed to know and work with people who genuinely enjoy each other. Earning money at a company with people I enjoy being with is wonderful.

On the way to work in my new vehicle a rock smacked the windshield and a crack developed. I’ve been on this drive often enough to have seen some of the worst auto accidents ever. If a whack to the windshield is the worst I’ll ever encounter on the commute then I’m truly a blessed man. The crack is large enough to warrant a new windshield. Ah well.

There’s an auto dealership near me that can replace the windshield at a much lower cost than some of the alternatives. They’re very popular and busy so the original time estimate for the work they’ll do is a little longer than planned. Still, it’ll be ready the same day I brought it in. That is very nice. I can’t imagine how long it would take me to purchase, pick up, and replace the broken windshield with a new one on my own in my front yard! I can wait a little while longer than planned.

Because it’s a sunny day and I have a couple extra hours to spare I have decided to walk to a nearly food place. The walk isn’t terribly bad – barely over a mile – and walking therapy is always a good thing. It’s really nice that the temp is cool enough to make that walk without breaking a sweat. It’s not often that we get nice walking weather in southeast Texas so I’ll jump on this opportunity!

It’s going to be a great day.

I hate it when people at the grocery store make me cry.

Also, those who proclaim our modern day society is deeply divided by race and gender issues aren’t paying attention.

I saw an encounter this morning that crosses culture boundaries and sheds light on the Hope that awaits at the bottom of our social Pandora’s box.

In front of me at the checkout line was a very old man in a mobility scooter. He had the basket on it in front of him filled pretty high. The family in front of him had a fair number of items. I settled in and prepared to wait. I had ice cream and frozen pizza silently thawing out in my cart but sometimes getting worked up over small stuff isn’t worth the effort.

As I waited, I noticed the head of the family two spots ahead of me. She looked angry as did her daughter. Meh. Who knows why.

The gent in front of me looked around him a little shakily. I followed his gaze and saw a magazine with Betty White on it and the congratulations on her 100th birthday. I immediately thought of the meme showing her being sad because she could no longer play with Legos as they are rated ages 3 to 99. That was funny. I wondered what he thought of Betty White, if he thought of her at all.

The family had finished putting things on the belt and were getting ready to pay. The daughter noticed the old man’s basket hadn’t been unloaded on the belt, as he couldn’t reach the items in the cart. She asked him if she could unload his cart for him onto the belt. He said, “no, the cashier can do it”. She gently insisted and he said ok.

The momma saw this happening and waved her daughter over to start the payment process. “No, hun, you go on. I got this.”

It was at this point I started to tear up. Public crowds are my kryptonite. My social anxiety makeup is such that too much exposure to people in crowds overwhelms me. I was already saturated with others’ emotions and stories and this tipped the cup for me.

I kept as best a straight face as I could by mama looked over at me. I barely could make a smile as our eyes met and I wiped my eyes. This unexpected kindness there me for a loop. She nodded and smiled to the gent and made small talk as she went about her business of helping him. He had some packages of steak. I know this because the lady asked him how he like it prepared. She no longer looked angry as she helped him.

The cashier was ringing up his items as this went on, and then she was done.

The old man carefully started to extract himself out of the scooter to pull out his wallet with his shaky hands. Before he could finish, the cashier stopped him.

“Sir,” said the cashier, “your groceries are paid for.”

He was confused.

“The lady in front of you paid for your groceries.” She smiled at him.

“But,” he asked, “why did she do that?”

“I dunno,” replied the cashier, “maybe she wanted to to have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.”

He completed the event of standing up and said, “No, I gotta pay it. I have to pay her back somehow.”

The lady who’d helped the man saw his quiet stubbornness, as she and the family had stayed back to make sure all was well with the transaction. She stepped up to rescue the cashier.

“No, hun,” she said, just like before, “you go on. I got this. Where are you parked? We’ll get those groceries in your car.” And off they went.

These stories are everywhere. We just need eyes to see them and ears to hear them.

And sometimes, hearts to live them.

Yesterday was my Dad’s birthday. He turned 77 years old.

When I phoned him to wish him well, one of the first observations he made about his age was this: He turned 77 years old. The average life expectancy for his demographic is 77.5 years. He hoped the next six months would go well for him.

We had a bit of a chuckle about that.

We spent a while just shooting the breeze, catching up on the latest news in our respective necks of the woods and talked about upcoming plans.

He said he found some old photos of me as a young adult and some of me as a kid. He’d like to hand these off to me the next time we meet in person. Also he found a stash of love letters I’d saved between me and my teen crushes. That’ll be fun reading, haha.

After closing the call I realized he and I had reached a stage a while back that was very comfortable.

I am no longer desperately grasping for his approval. This was a game-changer.

Don’t get me wrong; I still respect his insight and opinions and like it when we can joke about life, growing older, and the fact that uncertainty is still very much alive and real even with our combined 133 years of life experience.

But instead of a pair of guys who are seeking to convince and correct the other, we’re now just a couple of old pals who can comment on the state of existence and just appreciate each other’s company.

We’ve been thru a lot together in the last 50-odd years of life. We haven’t been in each other’s daily life for a few decades now but still, we’ve had our share of chats.

Here’s to six months of good health and choices for him. And six more after that. And many more after that.