Keeping Count

Recently a man in his forties wheeled another guy of about the same age into my office.  The guy in the chair had recently been in a really bad car accident and wanted to know whether or not he had disability coverage on his truck loan.  Side note: I still find it amazing (especially considering that this guy was in such bad shape) that people actually get into a car and drive to the branch to find out something they could easily find out over the phone.  Anyway, as he began to relate to me the severity of his injuries and how lengthy his recovery was going to be (about a year) and how much he thought I'd like to see his x-rays (I declined), I was diligently searching through the system trying to find the aforementioned coverage.  Unfortunately, it turned out that he had not elected to have disability coverage.  Instead, he'd chosen life insurance.  When I informed him of this, he asked me, "Then, in other words, if I die, my truck gets paid off?"  When I responded in the affirmative, he said, "That's the same as with my house."  The he turned to his brother-in-law (the wheeler guy) and said, "I guess I know what I need to do."

He was the second person that week to allude to suicide in my office.  I tried to be as encouraging to him as I could and reminded him that we were only talking about things and that he was important to his family.

I hear so many sad stories, so many tales of misfortune.  I'm absolutely determined to count my blessings, to not lose sight of the good things.  Yeah, the bad stuff is still there.  I'm just going to choose to focus less on it.  I'm keeping count.