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September 28 • Driving Home a Point

Day 812


We got a new car today. You know, the one we bought two days ago. It was worth the wait.


I've been surprised at my ability to wait patiently for it (a whole 48 hours), as well as the lack of those 'regret demons' that I expected to be in full bloom by now, causing me to doubt our purchase decision from every which perspective.


Nothing else has changed in our economic prospects. The world is still a bit topsy-turvy, which also tends to make me play very conservatively with big decisions. But I remain in an okay place with what we've done.


I took these two days to do more research on the car we bought, the one we traded in, the financing we received, and I even built a budget that showed what we need to do to be able to afford this thing. Each of those steps was fraught with the possibility of proving that we'd made a terrible mistake, but the upshot is that each step reinforced that it was a pretty good move at a pretty good time. Not justified, actually reinforced.


It feels cheesy to say that The Promises of my 12 Step program are coming true, but it feels like that. For one thing, it's just a car, and I don't really know whether my Higher Power cares how I get around town. For another thing, the future is still unknown, so it may still turn out to be a really bad decision. For a 'nother thing, I know me and my propensity to turn anything into a negative. I've had 48 hours to do that, and that's about 49 hours longer than I usually need to find the problems with any commitment of this magnitude.


Oh, and what's so bad about observing that The Promises just might be real, that the program can help me move from insanity to sanity, from cowardly to at least less fearful, from a worry-wart to a trusting child of God?


This is not about earning or getting a new car; this is about the differences I'm seeing in all aspects of my life, between my ears and between my days. Different is good.

There is so much in this entry that I can argue with theologically, philosophically, and even addictively, but I'm not going to do that. Today I'm going to make a note that we have taken delivery of a new car with lots of new whizzbangs and gadgets, and we are very pleased with our mutual decisions and prospects.


That is some weird thinking right there. But I'll accept it for today, and we'll see what the 'morrow brings when tomorrow pulls into my driveway.


–JR

 

Looking like a big star

I don't care if the price is too high

It's got a VCR cruise control and Onstar

So I know where I'm at all the time

I got a new car


–Cledus T. Judd, “New Car"

 


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