The last time my Driver's License was up for renewal, I was notified by the TSA officer at the airport. It had expired and I was headed to Nashville. Problematic, to be sure, but the nice gent gave me a reprimand and sent me on to my flight. I promptly renewed online when I got to Nashville.
This time they had to see me in person. Age, I suppose. That was right up Roger's alley anyway. He always believed in interfacing with a person rather than a computer. But this time I had to do it all by myself. I kept putting it off, but May is rolling in quickly...and I like to travel, so renewing became a necessity.
We now have a lot of new rules for your government ID. (For legals anyway)
- Birth Certificate (certified version, not the one with footprints) or Passport. (√ Passport)
- Proof of Social Security Number (SS Card - nope, W-2 or paystub which require a job - nope, 1099 - you would think this would be easy, but everything showed up with Roger's name on it...finally, one small bank account for travel for me....good save on that one!)
- Proof of address (again, practically every item was in Roger's name or listed the PO Box since we have been here for decades before we ever were allowed a mailbox with a street address - who knew? Finally I found an insurance bill in my name. Whew!)
- And pass the eye test
- And say you are not mentally or physically incapable, don't have seizures or diabetic. And don't think about lying!
Actually, some of the questions make one wonder how there are so many vehicles on the road! Somebody is lying out there! And this is if you are a legal resident of Florida.
They did not ask about my political persuasions but did ask if I vote. I told them that I had never missed an election and there was one on Tuesday. (She was surprised!)
Roger would have quite enjoyed this conversation.
He would also have inquired about her political persuasions.
While I once found that a little annoying at times, I miss it now.
Roger's name has systematically been eliminated from almost every written document in my life...except bills. I can hardly stand it. I know those will eventually change too, but now I understand why daddy never took my mother's name off of something even as simple as his checking account. He could not stand to have her erased.
As I was driving home from the DMV today, my mind reviewing the recent happenings, I was reminded of the Challenger explosion. Roger reminded me when he returned home from Africa (Senegal, I think) that life is like a vapor....he generally referred problematic things back to Scripture.
"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."
James 4: 14 for 4 / 2014 hmmmm
"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."
James 4: 14 for 4 / 2014 hmmmm
Years and years ago, back in high school, I had the idea that if you were just here and then gone, then what did anything matter. I grew up in the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis....and in Florida, we kind of expected to just poof and be gone for a while there. But as I paid more attention to Scripture, and had a real 'come to Jesus' meeting and formed a relationship with Him, the verse came to mean more to me.
When I married a firefighter who not only would fight fires, but could be involved in really big explosion type fires, that verse became even more meaningful to me, as it always seemed to for him. He called it food for thought. Like, if you are only here for a bit, what are you going to do with it?
Are you going to party and waste time on meaningless things? Are you going to work yourself to death, and for what? Are you going to invest in something or more realistically someone, who has value for eternity? He picked the eternity route. No doubt about it now, he did that.
These days I keep seeing posts on 'end of the world' stuff, survivalist stuff, political fearsome stuff. None of it bothers me much anymore. Mankind has been waiting for the end of the world, and even more, the return of Christ, since the day He was crucified and buried. Mankind has been watching since the day He rose again and ascended into Heaven. He's coming. I know it. But I know better than to just sit around and wait. He gave us life here. Life to be lived. But living, isn't real life without Him in it. It is all about that relationship. Being present is not living. Working is not living. Only life with Christ in it is real living. And it is only for a season, and we don't know when our personal season will end.
Sure, there is work to be done, paperwork to be dealt with, lives to re-adjust to a new normal. But none of that is real living. Roger's Lesson: For sure, he would be glad that I finished the trip to the DMV. He would say to get the paperwork done fast and get on with the living...but to be sure it is real living.
James 4:14
April 2014
Perfect message for such a time as this.
His name may be erased, but his memory, never. The people he touched, never.
It won't be erased any more than the memory of this vapor - a moment in time - will leave our memories.
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