I suppose I have to do this to bring everyone up to speed. Really, I wanted to write something funny and glib this week. However, in addition to not feeling funny and glib, I know a lot of you have been concerned for Marsha and myself as our marriage has now officially ended. And I came away with some blog worthy thoughts in the process. If you don’t wish to read about it, then don’t. I certainly will not be offended. However, there is nothing bad here, no shouting or name calling, no mean language. Just a few thoughts.

          First, my GPS. If there are any bad thoughts in my head, they are for my GPS. For my GPS I will use feminine gender pronouns because my GPS has a female voice. I originally bought her about eight months ago. I don’t like the things, but sometimes they are handy. So far, just to see if she works, I used her to get to Walmart in Warsaw, Indiana and to a doctor’s office two weeks ago, also in Warsaw. Not really a challenge. She worked OK. Cleveland, however, was another matter. I know the route from Indiana to Cleveland pretty well and I knew where I was going that first night to spend the night, although I had never been there. It was just off the highway, not a problem. The GPS did fine until we were approaching the exit, but she was not advising me to get off. We had been driving for several hours and I supposed she was napping, but when I got off, she immediately began to tell me that I had gotten off at the wrong exit. Once I was headed to the motel, she became insistent that I needed to turn back. When I pulled into the parking lot, she was imploring me to turn around. I mean, she would not shut up. I had this reaction with the funeral home’s GPS in Pittsburgh years ago, but I really was turned around then. Once I got to my room, I had a long talk with the GPS, but she did the female thing and just sat there all silent and moody. The next day I put in the address for the courthouse knowing I was not going directly to the courthouse. Cleveland has some pretty neat neighborhoods and I know a lot of them and I just wanted to take the tour. I wasn’t really thinking of the GPS or that she was going to be angry when I deviated from her instructions, but boy, did she get angry. All I was hearing was ‘RECALCULATING, RECALCULATING!’ I explained there were places I wanted to revisit, but she was pretty annoyed. In fact, once I made a right hand turn on Bishop Road. As I was completing the turn, I realized that at some point in the last four years, Bishop had become a one-way street and I was turning the wrong way. The GPS, in the voice of a woman who has just had it proven that the male in her life is a total idiot, said, “You have now turned the wrong way on a one-way street.” Of course, I had to turn around, but I was laughing so hard it was hard to find a place to turn. And then, once I quit the tour, I began to follow her directions to the courthouse. I have been to this courthouse on funeral home business dozens of times, but I was in the neighborhoods and needed her help getting there. She got me to the courthouse just fine, but insisted that it was on the south side of Lakeside Avenue when it is actually on the north side. The differences between the modern buildings on the south side and the two block long, one block deep 100 year old marble Cuyahoga County Courthouse on the north side are quite striking, but she was absolutely sure, once again, that I was an idiot. Actually, I think she was stressed out. Cleveland can do that. After I left the courthouse and got back in the car and fired the GPS up again, I just hit the HOME icon. I am telling the truth, she seemed to sound relieved when she said, “Please drive to the highlighted route.” She was very pleased to get home.

          The second thing I came away with is that we live in a society that is moving toward ruin. Cuyahoga County is home to 1.3 million people. Compare that to Wabash County’s population of 33,000 people. Actually, Cuyahoga County used to be much larger. As manufacturing jobs went away the county and the city of Cleveland dwindled. Now, much of the area is in decay, both physically and morally. I got to the courthouse just after noon for a 2:30 appointment and, once I got away from the entrance, I became depressed to see how run down the building had become. On the third floor I found the room I wanted and sat down to wait.

          There are family court judges, but the divorce portion of family court is so busy that they do not use actual judges. They use magistrates. These are attorneys who have as their sole job the task of making sure all the ‘i’s have been dotted and all the ‘t’s have been crossed. We sat before the magistrate for 10 minutes of our 2:30 to 3:00 appointment. A few questions and boom, 44 years of marriage were wiped off the books. There are three magistrates covering divorces for family court in Cuyahoga County. They have 30 minute sessions all day every day. That is all they do. Process divorces. I was there two and a half hours early and it was very sad.

          But another thing I saw as I sat waiting was how filthy the place was. Built at a time when things were built to look grand, the doors had patterns on them and scroll work in the marble walls and door frames all around. Once beautiful, in 2019 you can see the caked in dirt and residue from years of neglect. Cracks in the marble look to be growing. In the time I was there no one came by to sweep floors or empty trash cans. In fact, the only maintenance/janitor type I saw was a guy standing at the security desk drinking coffee and talking to the security guard as I was coming in. Society seems to be like that everywhere. Morally corrupt and with a lack of care and compassion.

          And then, I received a lesson on change. I didn’t recognize Marsha at first when she walked up to me in the hall. She is now a blond. I had never seen that look. It didn’t look bad. It kind of looked unnatural, but I am sure that is just because I had never seen her that way. Also, she is getting remarried on the 19^th of October, which should be enough time for the divorce decree document to get to her and for them to get their marriage license. To her, this was just another step into a new life.

But the final thing I learned that day was that when people are praying for you, you can feel it. Actually, I feel it every Sunday when I preach and there is someone in the prayer room. But this was different. Hundreds of miles away in the middle of the day and still I knew that people were lifting me up. Pretty cool.

High points? No traffic problems. No car problems. Had a great breakfast on Monday morning. Passed a tornado in a field a few hundred yards away on the way home. Got to drive around Cleveland. I wasn’t a bad trip overall.

 However, it was sad. The hardest thing I have ever done. Now that it is over, though, there is a sense of stress being relieved. I feel better physically that I have in a while. This ordeal will never be fully over, but the impact is in the past, if you know what I mean. Life will go on.

 I have a very big personal day coming up next week and I intend to enjoy it. I haven’t enjoyed very much in the last year, but that changes as of now!

 Blessings.