Five years ago, you were teacher of the year and now this.
All this would be fine—well, not exactly fine but manageable—if you were not due at this faculty meeting in half an hour. You look at the other drivers—some passing you, and some you are passing. You look at their faces and wonder how great the gap is between who they are and who they know they could be. You’re on Interstate 10. The I-10 is known to locals, depending on your direction, as the San Bernardino Freeway or the Santa Monica Freeway. Freeways here, true to the romantic nature of the West and its ever-hopeful revision of the life that came before, are made for movement and the future and they’re named for where you’re going—not where you’ve been.
The past, well, that’s for when you turn around. Where you’ve been is only important in the context of where you are. And if where you are this moment is good, the past makes sense and every moment of horror and dread seems worth it. If where you are is terrible, the past just seems like an accumulation of data that confirm you were on this path all along.
How things end up matters.
— Rob Roberge, Liar: A Memoir (Crown, February 9, 2016)
Photo of Santa Monica Freeway (10)
Live & Learn 
yes, after everything, ‘how things end up matters’ is such a spot on line
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and that’s the punch line…
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Boy, this hit me like a punch to the solar plexus. Have a couple of friends who are going through some very tough times at the moment…they have come through a rough spot and, sadly, are not out of the woods yet. Hoping they end up ok. ‘How things end up matters.’ Indeed…😥
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Hope your friends are ok. Yes. The last sentence was the punch line, literally and figuratively.
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It’s the journey, not the destination? I suppose that is predicated on what happened along the road…
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That it is!
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Very wise words! … “How things end up matters.” — Rob Roberge, Liar: A Memoir (Crown, February 9, 2016).
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but we often have the opportunity to influence where we “end”, or to create a new ending…
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What’s the saying: “Man Plans. God Laughs.”
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👍
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But then…. is anything really over if where you’re at is not something you can live with? Ultimately, the end matters because every ending is the beginning of something else…
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That is Truth Louise!
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Haven’t needed to be on the I-10 for awhile…like the other’s in the photo we were all traversing to the ahead…hopefully reaching our destination, safely…as we are all works in progress…with much refinement, being shaped…from clay or rough stone to Each Gift of Breath forming Life…Each of Us So Uniquely Complex…Some of Us Appreciate the gift of Life while Others Exploit, Diminishing The Gift…One Never Knows What Lies Ahead Nor How We Will Navigate The Challenges We Encounter In Our respective Lives…I’ve witnessed true life experience on tv or read non-fiction & learned much and hoped that I’d approach a challenge with a clear mind, strength, intelligence, empathy and with grace…& call out to God asking What for strength, comfort and way through & What am I to Learn from This Trial…and as this line spoke to me: “… wonder how great the gap is between who they are and who they know they could be.”and I know for me that I know the Gap is wide…and do I have the strength to attempt putting that Breath Forward to It’s Best Use? or just Muddy along…
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Does I-10 pass through Oregon?
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