Lost In A Lost World

I lost my wallet a few weeks ago while Cindy and I traveled to Seattle for the weekend. It was a disorienting experience (not having it in my pocket) combined with fear (where is it), anxiety (who has it now), frustration (what was in it), all at once and each equally intense. My wallet was my key to everyday life, containing credit cards, a debit card, my driver's license and much more. It was my digital DNA that allowed me to be me.

This vault of information could also allow someone else to be me, so I began making phone calls to credit card companies and the like to cancel accounts. The paradox of using an automated phone system soon set in...to reach a live operator I needed the account number, but I did not have the account number since the card was gone. I also found that most voice recognition systems do not respond to sarcasm, frustration or phrases such as "I lost my card" or "I NEED HELP YOU BLEEPING RECORDING".

Life, as they say, is what you make of it, full of accidents and surprises. It is up to us to make the decision on how to react and where to focus our thoughts. Had I lost my wallet a few years ago it would have involved much hand wringing and worrying about things I could not change, all wrapped up in the constraints of negative emotion. Losing it now, well, it wasn't fun, but it was over and done with within a few hours and I could begin to feel the relief of letting go.

Many pushed buttons later, the accounts were cancelled and replacement cards ordered. They have been trickling in and no errant charges appeared on any of the cards. My identity appears to be still safely attached to me and me only.

The other day there was a message on my work phone: my wallet had phoned home. Found by a nine year-old boy who gave it to his father, my wallet arrived in the mail earlier this past week, fully intact, minus whatever cash was in it that I insisted the boy keep as a reward. It is worth every penny to remind me of the goodness of people that are out there.