Something for Everyone

The sunrise is going to catch me at this keyboard. The annoying thing about that is it is Saturday. I am not entirely sure why I awakened so early, but then this mental/spiritual/I do not know what thing started rattling around in my head and I knew it was more likely that I would take a nap this afternoon than get back to sleep this morning.

This week has been more eventful than my weeks often are. I learned a couple things. I cannot remember them both although I expect them to come back before I complete this post. What do you expect from a sleep-deprived man my age anyway?

Oh yes, we were talking about the week. Tuesday morning I met with my chiropractor. You remember him, the high school classmate who seems larger than life as a person, a professional, and however else one can be larger than life. In any event, I asked him if we could meet because I had a couple things on my mind and I knew he was one of the few people who would hear me out without trying to interpret my motives. I like being right. I was this time.

We talked for a little over an hour. He did not really have any answers for me, but it helped tremendously that he listened and he cared. He also had some very nice things to say about this blog and my ability to teach. He told me once, a year or so ago, that maybe he was going to be my John the Baptist in some area. You know, prepare the way to somewhere, for someone, or something. I do not think I will be invited to be the keynote speaker at a chiropractors' convention so we will have to wait and see how that manifests.

Friday, I drove to Santa Barbara to meet with a labor attorney. She is a very nice, young lady and seems to be competent. She must be. She cannot be but about forty years old and is a partner in the oldest law firm in Santa Barbara. Yes, forty is young when you look as far back at it as I do. By the way, she says I have a good case. There is even something interesting about that. You know we have a new director at the mission right? I think I told you that. Forgive me, it is barely 5:00 AM. Anyway, my job seems to be becoming what the company is claiming it has been all along, a professional position. We, the new director and I, interviewed a prospective team member together yesterday. (Semi-competent help has been one of my pet peeves, but I had never been asked for my input during the hiring process before.) I have also been asked to completely rewrite our recovery program. I am pretty sure both of those would fall under the general category of "professional activities" according to the law.

I returned home from that meeting and checked a few things around the house. It was about lunch time and I was feeling a little hungry. Since the men would not be at the mission for lunch I decided to get a Costco hot dog on the way to work. I was minding my own business, eating alone, watching the ebb and flow of the crowd when in walked five of our superior court judges. (Since I have related that event to other people, I guess it is amusing they were having lunch at Costco, but I did not think about that at the time.) I had at least brushed up against each of them professionally at some point and I know one of them a little more personally. Of course I was out of context at Costco so I had to remind them who I am. To make a long story short, if it is not already too late, they ended up at the table with me. I began to excuse myself when I finished, but was invited to stay. I stayed and visited with them, even entertained them with a funny story about a deputy District Attorney. I have absolutely no idea how this story relates to anything except maybe that we had a very brief discussion about the need for more recovery facilities in our part of the world.

I did have something of an endorphin rush leaving that, chance meeting. I felt a little giddy. Costco hot dogs have never done that to me before so I am assuming it was the company and the conversation. Perhaps it was just that a nobody like me was recognized by some of the power elite in the county. My own analysis is that it showed me I really do have a place, in Santa Maria and in the recovery community. I know I am where I am supposed to be, doing what I am supposed to be doing, but it is nice to have it confirmed from time to time.

When the rabbis of Jesus' time taught using parables they inserted different levels of meaning into them. In doing so, they were able to teach different people at different levels of mental, emotional, and spiritual understanding all at the same time. I am not smart enough to do that in these posts, but I just now realized I have done that in this one.

I will leave you with Proverbs 10:19. You will probably understand why. "When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise." (hint: that is all I was supposed to write today.)