Never Say Never

When I was a young man I was very set in my ways. I think this is because we allow our limited experiences combined with our already achieved comfort and enjoyment levels to cause us to think in absolutes. Such as:

"Mmmm, this pizza is the BEST! I'm never going to get pizza any where else."

Or: "Wow! That was incredible! Will you marry me?"

As I eventually matured, my experiences broadened and my tastes became more eclectic. For example: I went from having several played and re-played and over-played Elvis and Buddy Holly records to close to 1,000 CD's that range from Classical to Rock to Jazz to Oldies to Reggae to Bar Bands, etc. My opinions have softened and I am less likely to think in absolutes.

There have been, over the years, some prime examples of me changing my mind from what I thought were absolute opinions. My Dad was a Chevy man. Every car or truck he ever owned were Chevrolets. In my twenties, I was a Chevy man. Today I own two Jeeps and I cannot remember the last Chevy I owned.

I spent fifteen years working in newspaper pressrooms. We would laugh at the "suits" when they came through. I said I would never have a job where I had to wear a suit. I also said I would never have a job where I had to commute to work. I spent the last seventeen years of my career as a salesman and tech rep for an ink company. I wore a suit everyday and traveled as much as 800 miles a week.

I was raised Catholic and went to a Pentecostal church during my senior high and early adult years. During that time (for doctrinal reasons) I said I would never be a Baptist. I eventually spent twenty years as a Sunday School teacher and a deacon in the Baptist Church.

I have had several handheld PDA's, all with the Microsoft operating system; such as the HP Jornada and the Ipaq. I looked at Palm Pilots and I didn't like them. I said I would never own a Palm. I just recently got the Palm LifeDrive and I love it.

I have always said that I would never own an Apple computer. The company was too small. There's not enough software options. Apples are for geeks. I am writing this on a MacBook Pro and just set up a new Mac mini desktop last night. So call me a geek.

And there was a time when I thought I would go to my grave claiming, "At least I was never a nudist. I could never do something like that!" I now live year round at a nudist resort.

The lessons to be learned here are that we don't know it all when we are young. There are few absolutes in life and that we should never say never. Well... I have just one more for good luck.

"I NEVER want to be a millionaire!"