Good Decisions

Every once in awhile, we are called upon to make decisions that will have far-reaching consequences, only we don't know it at the time. I've made plenty of bad decisions in my lifetime. LOTS of decisions that, if I had them to do over, I would have gone in another direction. But every once in awhile, I've made good ones that only showed up as good ones later. Here are a couple of them:

When my daughter was in early high school, she started a telephone/computer relationship with a young man. I didn't care for the kid because he sounded shady, but I hadn't even met him yet, so I reserved judgment. Then Megan happened to mention that he was African-American. Oops! In that moment, I knew I was in trouble. If I expressed my dislike for the kid, she could accuse me of being racist and get a defensive mindset that would push her closer to him. (Hey...I know my daughter!) Mentally, I took a deep breath and decided that I would put my money where my mouth was. I had raised her to be colorblind, so I needed to step back and let things be. I decided to keep my mouth shut. I even took the two of them for an afternoon in quaint Nashville, Indiana. It worked! That relationship didn't last more than two weeks, and the young man went on to do serious jail time for stealing (and using) credit cards...and who knows what else? His being African-American had nothing to do with my disapproval of him because I didn't even know that when I had made my initial evaluation, but it sure made things sticky. In the end, I had made the right decision to zip my lip!

Back when Hurricane Katrina devastated the South, the SATERN radio organization (part of The Salvation Army's disaster response) had a net up on HF radio in order to get information in and out of the affected area--not the least of which was New Orleans. This was a national network. I volunteered to take over for an hour of controlling the net. Since my name and phone number had been published in the Indianapolis Star as a contact person for Health and Welfare (people looking for information about friends and relatives), the local media showed up on my doorstep for some TV coverage out of my crowded little radio shack! I got a phone call from a man with the Indianapolis Colts. It seems that Colts' quarterback Peyton Manning is from New Orleans, and the caller was hoping that SATERN could determine if Mr. Manning's property was under water. Wow! I was so excited about the prospect of getting that information for a national figure! I was prepared to put it out on the net for someone to determine the status of the property. Then I began to think about it. Peyton Manning wasn't asking about the property; a representative of the Colts was. The situation in New Orleans was critical. We were dealing in human lives. IF I had put it out on the net that someone wanted to know if millionaire Manning's property was safe, it would make Manning sound like an insensitive fool--and it would make ME look like an idiot. So many people's lives were at stake, and we were worried about a piece of property? Not a good idea! I called the fellow back and explained the dilemma. I told him that I appreciated his concern for Mr. Manning and wished I could help, but that I thought it would be "bad press" for all of us if I even made an attempt to get the information he sought. He agreed. As it turned out, Mr. Manning's property was high and dry, but I saved us all the potential embarrassment of having the radio world think Indianapolis consisted of a bunch of dolts. Good for me!

I'm sure I have made other good decisions, but they elude me now. Wish I had made so many that I am overwhelmed with fodder for the blog!