Living: the ultimate team sport

Where Am I?

Posted on January 5, 2026 Updated on January 3, 2026

Do you have a difficult time trying to figure out what direction you’re facing or what direction you’re traveling?

ME TOO!!!

In general, I know some of the locations of the world’s countries and continents – because I have certainly seen them on a globe or other map – but in my own neighborhood? Not so much. I have lived in the same house for 23 years, and I still ask my husband what direction our neighbors across the street are. If you’re wondering, it’s East…because I just asked him.

It’s not that I don’t care, I really do, but I think directional bearings fall almost to the bottom of my abilities, with mathematics – or arithmetic, as we used to call it when I was lots younger – at the very bottom of my list.

My eight-year-old grandson excels at math. Just the other day, he was testing his – and therefore our – multiplication skills.  What’s 24 x 24? What’s 36 x 36? I am not ashamed to say that with my cell phone somewhat hidden underneath the dining table, I activated my calculator app and came up with the answer to that last query. But I was very honest, so that holding up the answer and facing the calculator toward Lucas, I asked, “Is this the right answer?” Of course it was, but he discerned the answer without electronic assistance.

So, I am weak when it comes to directional arrows, and I am super weak when all things numbers are involved, but I am strong in spelling, word definitions, and – for the most part – sentence and paragraph structure.

The bottom line, however, is that what makes us all unique is our varied abilities, and when combined, all those individual parts make a whole, and that’s a very good thing. You complement me, and I complement you, and we all somehow make it through each day we are given. Keep in mind, complement is not the same as compliment, the latter word coming into play when I boost your ego by saying something nice about you.

ANYWAY, let us all celebrate our similarities but also our differences because that, my friends, is what makes the world go around…and speaking of gravitational force, don’t get me started with my science deficits. Suffice it to say, I can probably talk my way out of figuring out the science of our world by writing an essay of some sort…like this one!!!