A little over a year ago I went on a trip to Mexico with a bunch of middle schoolers. One of the other leaders brought with him enough technology so that if he sat in the front seat of the van and spread it all out it looked like he was the captain in the cockpit of a 747. Well maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit but not much! On that trip I got introduced to . . . . the “Tom Tom” - a little GPS navigating system that I found to be quite friendly. I came home from that trip and looked up into the face of my husband and said “Di Di wants a Tom Tom”. We checked it out and found however that Tom Tom’s price was not too friendly at the time.

Well, this Christmas Tom Tom was on sale and my husband bought one for me. I was so excited until I had to figure out how to use the thing! *Sigh*

Eventually however, I clipped that little miracle onto my windshield and began my first journey with the nice little British man I had chosen as my guide. He says things like, “Aftah 400 Yahds - Tun Lehft.  Then go onto the motahway”.

I am now getting the feel of how far 400 “yahds” is but in the beginning I didn’t always respond quick enough. The first time I missed a turn I realized it right way but couldn’t safely turn in time so I kept going. Then I wondered what Tom Tom would do. Would he say, “HEY!!! You missed your turn! Are you deaf!? Now you have to turn around!”

He didn’t say that. In fact, he didn’t say anything.

I kept going forward just to see what he would do next. When he finally spoke he calmly said, “Tun lehft, then tun lehft.” In the silence he had been reconfiguring “how to get there from here”.

I love that thought. It is what I do every day with parents. They come in sometimes knowing they’ve taken the wrong turn or missed an important turn and they feel like I’m going to say, “Why did you do that?! Don’t you know how much that hurts a kid?!!!” But I don’t. I don’t even feel like saying that. I love the idea of GPS’ing exactly where you are and figuring out how to get there from here! You can ALWAYS get there from here!!! It’s not just a beautiful thought. It’s the truth!