Question Everything

When I was four years old, I witnessed something very disturbing.  My mother had brought me and my two younger siblings to the local mall.  There was a line and a small crowd around someone, or something.  It was the Easter Bunny.  Or, at least, it was supposed to be.  It looked more like a person dressed in an Easter Bunny costume to me.  For some reason, I found this to be deeply troubling.

My mom noticed me looking toward the crowd and asked me if I wanted to go see the Easter Bunny.  I said “no.”  Thankfully, my younger siblings didn’t want to see him either.

Over the next several hours and maybe the next several days, I contemplated what I had seen.  I am unsure of how long I thought about it before I felt compelled to go to what was for me at the time the source of truth, my mother’s lap.

I asked her, “Is there really an Easter Bunny?”

She replied with a very wise question in response to my question, “What do you think?”

I responded to her question with another more specific question, getting to the heart of the matter, “Is there really a giant bunny that comes in my house in the middle of the night and hides Easter baskets?”

She said, “No, but don’t tell Chrissy and Billy because they still believe in the Easter Bunny.”

As a side note, this probably was the beginning of my superiority complex as the oldest child, because I now officially knew things that the younger kids did not.

Later that year, with no drama or upset, I realized that Santa Claus must also not be real; I did confirm this with mom, of course.

There are a few life’s lessons in this story:

• If your gut tells you something is not true, it probably isn’t.
• If you are unsure if something is true, do a little research.  Ask an expert if you know one, or research using trusted sources.

Throughout my life, there have been many times that I have questioned something that I was led to believe was true, or that was something I assumed I would do in my life because it is what you are “supposed to do.”  Here are a few examples, some potential future blog topics, in roughly chronological order as the questions first came up in my life:

• Should I go to college?
• Should I support my boyfriend’s dream?
• Should I move away from my home state?
• Should I have children?
• Where should I live?
• Does my church support me?
• Should I get a master’s degree?
• Should I leave my job?
• Should I pay off my mortgage?
• What should I do in retirement?
• When should I retire?

This is my first blog post, and my intent is to share things that people may find helpful, or maybe sometimes just entertaining.  If any of the things I mentioned in this blog are things you would like to hear more about, let me know in the comments.

I welcome all comments that are respectful; any that are not will be removed at my discretion.