Conversation with my Great Uncle
Hey guys,
Apologies if this comes off as rambling, I'm writing this for myself more than anything.
I've been thinking back on a conversation I recently had with my great uncle John. The guy is like a hero to me. Traveled the world with the love of his life, friends all over the country and overseas, never heard a bad word spoken about him. Genuinely never seen him without the most kind, warm smile. He lives across the country but I always look forward to spending time with him and my aunt.
Mary, my great aunt and his wife was just diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
It kind of came as a shock to us. We just found out a few days ago, right after we hopped on our plane to go visit our family that lives in the area. We decided to take a family picture on the beach knowing that, there was a good chance we would never see her again. After the picture, Uncle John asked me and my brother to ride with him over to dinner, which we happily obliged.
The first thing I noticed was the back pouch of the seat in front of me was bursting with local maps.
I asked him, "Uncle John, do you really still use maps to get around?"
He laughed and said, "Yeah, I do! See, the problem with GPS is that it only tells you where you are and where you're going. When I use these maps I can see the bigger picture and they might take you somewhere you never meant to go. As a kid, I used to just sit there and look through maps. People would ask me what I'm looking at and I'd say, "I'm in Brazil right now!"
Mary didn't say much as her speech was affected by a recent stroke, but she just looked at him with a quarter-crooked smile.
I'm just writing this so I can always remember - it's not all about where you are and where you're going.
Thanks for reading.