"Is it Secret? Is it Safe?"

"You can touch it, it's quite cool," says Gandalf to Frodo as he drops the Ring into Frodo's hand, still glowing from the fire. You'll notice, however, that Gandalf is using tongs to handle the Ring.
Now, that's trust.

This morning I went foraging for my husband's passport upstairs in his locked office, in the drawer where I was certain to find it. I needed to enter the number into the information requested by Air France for the Pilgrimage flight to Israel. [At least, they want me to think this is needed.] And I wanted to be sure the passport was findable.

Empty drawer. Mild panic. Searching the room, uncomplimentary thoughts circulating in my mind. All will be lost . . . so eventually, having eliminated the impossible, I return to the desk and try adjacent drawers and, voila, passport. By gosh, I am going to keep this passport safe.

However, where I keep my own passport, in my purse [really], is safe only in that it is a place I can remember for certain where it is. I cannot guarantee my purse will not be stolen. Also, who am I to arbitrarily choose what is the safest spot? But my compulsiveness wins. I think my husband and I are equally distractable, but my flakiness is compensated for by my control freak-ness.

This is what happens when we have possession of an item of critical and unique importance: we become obsessively controlling and paranoid in guarding its location. I'm much more worried about forgetting where my passport is than I am about the possibility of theft.

Baha'i Devotional Morning

Although I leave for work in a few minutes, as I work the evening shift, I had the pleasure of seeing the Baha'is this morning at Tim and Deb's Devotional meeting with waffles [!]. I loved the selection of writings about Baha'i civilization, and it put some thoughts into my head for teaching the Faith.

To my delight I met a young woman who has served at the Baha'i World Center in Haifa, Israel, who had some good ideas for what to do with our 3-4 days in Israel prior to the start of Pilgrimage. Given that there are some places we are warned to avoid, such as Jerusalem, the West Bank [Gaza goes without saying], Cara suggested we rent a car and drive to the Sea of Galilee. With a car we will have more mobility to go exactly where we want, when we want. Okay, I realize that for some people this is a no-brainer, but I really had not considered trying to drive in a foreign country. As long as we drive on the American, i.e., correct side of the road ; > . Freedom!

I found myself speaking with my friend Bonita, who is going on Pilgrimage in April, and urging her to get the passports now, as it takes some lag time.

After the waffles, I went to Office Max and found some inexpensive small [6 X 9] clipboards. Maybe because at the SNF where I work as a nurse, I keep myself organized with a clipboard, it seemed like a good idea to keep my papers organized on a purse-sized clipboard when we travel.

Time to get ready for work.