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[NOTE: Since this post ended up‘waaaay longer than usual (eek! 2670 words!), rather than subject you to an excruciatingly lengthy read today, I decided to split it into two parts. This here, as you can no doubt surmise from the title, is Part 1; Part 2 comes tomorrow. Assuming, of course, we’re all still here tomorrow. I mean, you never know…]

Hey, we all have to make decisions, but don’t you, at times, absolutely hate having to make ‘em? Yuk. Especially the big, honkin’, “earth-shattering-consequences” ones. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.

And you know what I hate the most? There’s nothing you can do to avoid them! (Can I get an “amen” here?) Oh, sure; you can pretend they’re not really all that important and hope they’ll go away.

But that’s not really a valid solution, as you hopefully have come to realize (uh, you DO realize that, don’t you?) Yep; sooner or later she comes home to roost. And even not deciding to decide, er, decides it, if you know what I mean. (Photo: decisions, by cuellar)

Well then! Since we seem to agree that big decisions are pretty much as inevitable as Star Wars Episode 33, or Rocky XXVII - and, since everybody has to make ‘em, like it or not - well then maybe, just maybe it’s not the decision that’s the problem. (I can hear you responding with something brilliant like, “Urk! Huh?” Hey, not to worry; I’ll explain.)

As I said, maybe it’s not the decision, but it’s (can I get a drumroll, please?) the attitude. If that’s the case, well, perhaps (hang on; lemme open up the ol’ toolbox and get out the BIG hammer) it’s time for an attitude adjustment.

That First Step is a Dilly!

Hey, I know all about big decisions. Back in 1985, we were in quite a quandary (which I believe is an old Ecuadorian saying that translates roughly as deep doo-doo). Mrs. MZM and I had been married in 1982, and during the first three years of our marriage, we experienced quite a few sudden surprises. For instance…

Mrs. MZM retired during our first year (yes, it was planned; about the only thing that was). However, in one of those decidedly non-serendipitous little surprises life sometimes throws at you now and then, I was unexpectedly laid off exactly one week later. Consequently, the new house we were building… well, let’s just say that dream sorta crashed and burned in a somewhat spectacular fashion (sound of crashing, burning… and sobbing).

Then, on our 1^st Anniversary, Mrs. MZM’s father changed his home address to Heaven. Naturally, there were some personal upheavals (he is sorely missed!), along with all the complications such an event typically ensues.

The last brick on the pile was the engineering business was experiencing a severe downturn (like most industries, it tends to follow cycles) and work was getting pretty scarce in the Houston area.

As a result, we began to consider leaving Houston for the first time. (It’s not that we didn’t want to; it’s just that her father needed looking after.) Now, having both been born and raised in the same town (Houston), we had a hard time imagining life “somewhere else”, you know? I mean, sometimes it’s hard to leave comfortable surroundings for the (sometimes not-so-) great unknown.

But, that indeed seemed to be the message the ol’ finger was writing on the wall, so to speak. So we did our best to try to evaluate the pros and cons as best we could.

Finally, we could wait no more; there was simply no work available in the ol’ homestead. So one fine Monday morning, Mrs. MZM and I said a prayer, took a deep breath, and mailed 175 resumes (yep; you read it right!) to assorted locations all over the U.S. This was it; the whole job search was totally in God’s hands now. All we could do was simply wait and see what happened.

Amazingly, within two weeks I received several calls from various agencies, and it was with an excited, yet slightly nervous heart I accepted a contract position in the completely mysterious locale known as Greenville, South Carolina (don’t worry; I had to look it up, too). As it turned out, the engineering job slump we were experiencing in Houston was actually somewhat localized; the job market was actually pretty hot in South Carolina at that time. Who knew?

Anyway, not having done this sort of thing before, I understandably went with a sortof “checking it out” attitude. So Mrs. MZM stayed home for the first month or so, just long enough for me to get a feel for how long the job might last (continuity of income has a tendency to score rather high on the priority list, you know).

However, it quickly became evident there was plenty of work (several years, at least), so we took yet another deep breath, and moved - lock, stock and barrel. (Although to this day, we can no longer find our lock, stock or our barrel; guess the movers lost those too. If you’ve ever moved cross-country, you’ll know the feeling.)

Decisions, Decisions

Go ahead; ask anybody! Making big, life-changing decisions (flash of lightning; crash of thunder; sound of terrified scream) ain’t easy. We’ve all had to make our share of ‘em. What’s even more irritating is, they keep on comin’, getting bigger and more dramatic as time goes by. In fact, you may be facing, or be in the middle of one, right this minute. Hey, it’s all part of the adventure we call life.

When you were still a kid, you hadn’t been required to make that many big decisions yet, and thus didn’t have the confidence (gained from experience) to know you were, you know, doing the right thing. That’s why, at that age, most decisions seem to be practically all life-changing decisions (once again: lightning, thunder, screaming).

Then, when you got to the dreaded teen years, you were pretty much involved with school, friends, etc., at least until it came time to start thinking about life, higher education and careers. It’s too bad it comes at such a tender young age - but then again, I guess we gotta start sometime, right? Things start getting hairy about then (er, sorry).

Questions like, Who should I hang out with? Or, What university and/or career should I be thinking about? Should we have sex now, or wait? Should I cheat on that test or not? Not to mention the ever-popular, God, are you really there?

Well, you remember. You began to realize: it’s tough (and really not much fun) making big decisions. Alas; it never gets any easier (sound of heartfelt sobbing).

As we reach adulthood, consequences get even bigger. The question of who to marry (should it ever come up), our belief in God (and what we’ll do about Him), which job to accept (should you be blessed with a choice - not everybody is, you know), where to live - well; the list goes on and on.

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OK, folks; thus ends Part 1 of the riveting real-life drama, As the Worm Turns (otherwise known as Life in the Middle Zone). Stay tuned for tomorrow’s dramatic conclusion: Use It or Lose It!

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