thoughts on the news of the day: identity theft

hmmm…..

            Arthur Gerald Jones is 73.  He is also Joseph Richard Sandelli.  Jones has been living under the Sandelli name since 1979.  He disappeared then and was declared dead in 1986.  But he now lives in Las Vegas where he has worked in a casino for ten years under the assumed name.  He has been charged with fraud but will probably only get probation as his punishment. 

            Aren’t there times when you wish you could run away and start over?  I have a friend who routinely declares “I want to run, screaming into the night and never come back!”  You could take a new name, leave your mistakes behind and start fresh.  Trouble is, wherever you go, there you are.   We can run to the ends of the earth, but we are still stuck with us.  Running away from a situation and off into another place is called “taking a geographic cure” in 12 Step programs.  Alcoholics do it all the time. 

            I guess it’s better to stay and face a situation.  As Mr. Jones/Sandelli found, the truth eventually catches up with you.   In spite of our own denial about ourselves or our situation, we eventually have to face reality.  There is no running away from it.

            And that’s where God comes in.  God is always there for us; God never runs away from us or our situation.  So I say, when you want to run away, run instead to God.  It’s a great place to find yourself.

            hmmm…..