Bye Bye Birdie

Time to head home. How can two weeks have flown by so quickly? Despite my unrest about breaking away from home, I have had a wonderful time everywhere I have visited - Tennessee, Wisconsin and Michigan. Its been great connecting with my sister, my classmates, my professors, my friends. But I am looking forward to hugging Sugarbear and kissing the boys hello. Not to mention the quiet comfort of my own bed.

Today I head out. I bought a GPS system before I left Rochester, a Tomtom. I have a love-hate relationship with the darn thing. I tried it out before I left home to get the feel of how it works. It was an adjustment figuring out that while my Blackberry requires the touch of human skin to move things about on the screen, Tom hates that. He prefers my fingernail or a stylus.

I punched in directions to my own house from different places about town only to find that Tom has definite ideas about how to navigate. I have to admit that I am a stubborn woman and prefer my own way. I kept turning places where Tom didn't think I ought to go. He patiently informed me to "take the next right" "take the next right" "take the next right" until he gave up and just told me to "turn around as soon as possible" - I could almost hear his frustration!

On the way to Deb's, Tom insisted on booking me straight through the heart of every major city while my printed AAA Trip Tix consistently took the bypass route. I went with AAA every time, and Tom patiently attempted to turn me around, finally giving in and rerouting me so I could go my own way. It was difficult to trust the unknown.

Eventually though, I decided I ought to cut him some slack and see how his way worked out. I was totally surprised to discover that he really did know what he was talking about, and every time he discovered a traffic slow down, he would beep at me and ask if I wanted to avoid the delay and take another route. Real time traffic info compliments of your friendly neighborhood satellite link.

I thought about it, and found an interesting parallel in life. Tom is like the Holy Spirit with direct links to someone with a great overall perspective. His direction does not always make sense or seem to be the best way, but in truth, it is. My ideas, from my limited perspective and those of my culture, my church, my friends, will still usually get me where I need to go, but often takes longer or misses out on something beneficial.

Its often hard to trust that something which seems impersonal has my best interests at heart and if I will just bend my stubbornness a bit, I will be better off in the long run. Of course, as with any analogy, there are limits.

For example, as I was driving south on Route 94, an oriole swooped in front of my car. Like some slow-mo movie, I was horrified that the bird miscalculated his flight path, and before either of us could react, he flew directly into my front right bumper. Tom never made a peep, but I cried for a dozen miles at the senseless waste. I would have tried to swerve had I known we were on a collision course.

Perhaps I do have an edge over Tom.