Yesterday John asked if I needed the bigger car, and I let loose with a mouthful of unorganized thoughts about how I could go to the bank to deposit those checks, and I really needed to pick up that book at the library, and pros and cons around which of us was going to get the girls from handbells. Actually he just wanted a one word answer, since he was already late. 

 

But other times I respond from TLI. Too little information. Outdated facts that probably expired in the last century. Impressions that linger long past their usefulness. 

There is a man I knew in college that did a few stupid things. Judgment malfunction of the brain I guess. Yet thirty years later I am still holding that as a resume of his character. The other day John mentioned that this particular friend was regularly taking an elderly woman out to do her shopping. Ka thunk. That did not jive with the categorical assessment I had made ages ago and neglected to update. 

Occasionally memory jiggles enough to remember some of the ridiculous things I have done. Like letting my fourteen year old son ride a bus unaccompanied to cross Pennsylvania while lugging a guitar, backpack and sleeping bag. Or driving across the country with six children and no husband in sweltering August heat in a car that even my mechanic refused to fix once we arrived home. Or writing an angry letter to a person which had fallout for ten years and accomplished zip. 

Maybe I could go back and find the bus driver or the mechanic or the recipient of the tirade and build a case about how I am not actually a complete idiot. 

But my time is probably better spent giving generous leeway for the people I want to attach judgment to.