{"id":8323,"date":"2015-08-12T07:08:31","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T11:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dougbittinger.com\/thoughts\/?p=8323"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:39","slug":"are-we-there-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/are-we-there-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Are We There Yet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"long<\/a>We often make light of youngsters’ exasperated query from the back seat of a car that\u2019s been on the road longer than they\u2019d like.\u00a0 And we can sometimes empathize with them when we wait longer than we anticipated for some event or milestone in life.\u00a0 But we need to recognize that these markers are just that, markers \u2013 perhaps rest stops \u2013 along the highway of life.\u00a0 The real question we need to be asking is, \u201cWhere are we going?\u201d<\/p>\n

If we have no destination in mind when we set out on our journey, how can we ever arrive?\u00a0 Would we then not be simply driving endlessly from one rest stop to the next \u2013 never really accomplishing anything except using up the resources of our life?<\/p>\n

But how do we choose a destination?<\/p>\n

Many do manage it: they choose a profession, acquire the education needed and find a place for themselves in that area of expertise.\u00a0 Some will stay there for the rest of their lives, others may find ways to embellish the destination.\u00a0 A doctor may become a medical researcher and no longer be practicing medicine, but is still a doctor; for example.<\/p>\n

Some of us never chose a destination, we just pulled out on the freeway and started driving.\u00a0 No, that\u2019s not true: I do have an overall destination: Heaven, and I am working on that as I am able.\u00a0 But I do not determine the arrival time.\u00a0 While waiting, I I did have a mortal, Earthly destination once, and I set out on that journey.\u00a0 But choices I made along the way got me off the main road and put me in front of a big sign:<\/p>\n

ROAD CLOSED.
\nNo detour available.
\nChoose another destination.<\/p>\n

So I took what I had acquired and applied it to another end point.\u00a0 Each of these end points turned out to be a motel at the end of a country lane.\u00a0 I\u2019d stay for a while, accomplish what I could, but each time morning would come and I\u2019d have to head off in another direction hoping to find someplace where I\u00a0 belonged … and wanted to be.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still driving.\u00a0 And I find myself asking, \u201cAre we there yet?\u201d\u00a0 But since I don\u2019t know where I\u2019m going, how can I know when I have arrived?\u00a0 So I drive … until I run out of gas, and achieve that eternal destination.<\/p>\n

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.<\/em>” — Douglas Adams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We often make light of youngsters’ exasperated query from the back seat of a car that’s been on the road longer than they’d like.  And we can sometimes empathize with them when we wait longer than we anticipated for some event or milestone in life.  But we need to recognize that these markers are just … Continue reading “Are We There Yet?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-8323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-life-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20030,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8323\/revisions\/20030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}