Six Days To Go

I arrived in Las Vegas full of enthusiasm for bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the city of sin. It seemed at the time like a challenge worthy of my calling. That calling today remains alive only inside my own head. I redirected that enthusiasm toward the creation of an ecumenical community of faith that would enjoin hearts and minds to a new relationship with their Creator through Christ. Today that vision remains only in my memory. One final time I redirected my enthusiasm toward child support enforcement only to learn that institutions ultimately end up preserving themselves by maintaining the status quo. Any thoughts I may have had about how to improve the process here remain mine alone. What one is supposed to do with unrealized aspirations is, I guess, what I am about to find out. Save Aunt Esther and her daughter, Dalene, the only family I’ll have in Fort Collins will be Mary, Rachel and Steve. The Rocky Mountain Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church was nonplussed when I informed it that I was returning as a native son. The Larimer County child support enforcement program informed me that I was not qualified for a position for which I applied that is similar to the one I hold now. It is hard to imagine beginning a new life with a lower profile than the one I bring to retirement. I’m hoping that this is a good thing; because neither can I imagine that I am ever going to be bothered by anyone else again.