Good morning Boys and Girls.

During my days, while driving along from one place to the next,  I often spend time contemplating how our world would be if some particular event in history had not occurred. It's not an original concept, but it interests me for some reason; this cosmic game of "what if".

Over the years I've read more than a few books by authors who've explored this idea of alternate historic time lines. My favorite - even though I don't remember many of the specifics (time for a reread) - was called "Job: a Comedy of Justice", by Robert Heinlein, in which the protagonist is continually tossed from changed world to changed world. One world might be a place where airplane flight was never invented, and thus large blimps with logos from recognizable airlines still rule the skies. Another might be a world where telephones never came to be, meaning ATT is a blue-chip messenger service, or even worlds where one form or another of government was never conceived... that sort of thing.

For me, this sort of projection usually involves small things; usually far more personal events; though I do wonder from time to time what might have happened, if, for instance, the slave trade had never developed in the New World, or if no one had ever decided to turn Jesus into a commodity and his teachings into a magic bullet - if no one ever decided to make a bigger deal of his birth and death than the way he lived his life. But for the most part, for me, it's little missteps I've made along the way that have altered the way I see myself or others I've associated with during my life that give me this sort of pause.

One particular event from my life that's crossed through this strange mental lense recently as I drove back from Iowa, involved a situation where I'd felt pressured to help a friend move to Nashville, Tennessee where he was about to start seminary. We were both young married guys, and each of us had one child at the time. He'd asked me for the favor months ahead of time, and I'd agreed, though reluctantly. I didnt' really feel I was in a position to be gone from my business a solid week just then, but I'd said yes nevertheless.

My wife and I along with our son decided to make it a short vacation. We'd follow the moving van down, help him unload, and then spend a day or two exploring Nashville.

As the time drew closer to make the trip, a major change took place in my fledgling business. I'd just taken on a large account, one I'd been fighting to win for over a year. I had just one employee at the time, a talented fast learner who was the brother of one of my other good friends and who, unfortunately, was as undependable as he was talented. I debated for a month or more whether to beg off from making the trip and helping with the move, but I knew my friend would consider it a slap in the face and, after all, I had given my word.

During the week leading up to the trip, my employee seemed to listen carefully and wrote down all my instructions as to how I wanted him to spend his days while I was gone. I explained how I wanted him to prioritize any business that came in, trying to help him understand how to differenciate between what needed to be done immediately, and what could be pushed back a day or so if he got too busy to handle everything. We didn't have cell phones back then, but I'd impressed on him how important it was to stay in touch with the folks who depended on me - on us, I tried to get him to understand - and I remember giving him lots of change for pay phones, and the phone numbers of all our clients.

Well, to make a long story short, he just didn't handle it very well at all, and when a couple of clients complained to him about being extremely late, he over-reacted and became rude, even walking out without doing any work on the very first work-day I was gone. For my part, I didn't call any of my clients that week, having decided to trust my employee to handle things - a horrible mistake. I did talk to my employee a time or two during the week, and he told me things were going just fine. Hah.

Upon my return, I found I'd lost two large accounts, including the new one I'd worked so hard to gain and another I'd worked at for years, but that just had a major management change, and so the new poeple hadn't had much of a history in dealing with me. It was awful. My bitterness was palpable and I fired the kid almost immediately. It wasn't his fault. I should NOT have gone on that trip - but, as I said, I'd given my word...

Of course, in retrospect, I should have broken my word; something it took me many more years to understand. There ARE times when circumstances dictate that we SHOULD break promises, especially when not breaking them can let down so many other people.

In my alternate timeline involving this scenario, of course, I didn't have to deal with a tainted reputation for a couple of years, my income wasn't impacted severely and the kid I fired went on to be a great right-hand man for me for years to come.

Is doing this sort of thing silly? -Sure. Pointless? -Of course.

Inevitable?

Uh huh.


Be good to everyone.