I'll be damned, I thought, and I saw Seamus' name in the paper, not for any charity, or award,

no accolade of any kind, not murder, not molestation, not yet. But a $100 fine and 9 months' probation for driving on a suspended license. Who knew what the penalty was for something like that. But I knew I was doing that back when we were 17. He may have done when we were in the same car. Suspended license. What the hell do you have to do to get a license suspended? Not that I have any room to judge. It's never happened to me but that doesn't mean it couldn't.

So I thought I'd check it out just to see what you really would have to do that and here it was:



-Accumulating too many points on your driving record
-Lying on a driver license application
-Driving with no proof of insurance
-Being convicted of driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs
-Leaving the scene of an accident
-Using your vehicle to flee from a law enforcement officer
-Refusing to pay a traffic ticket
-Failing to comply with court-ordered child support or alimony payments
-Violating the terms of Nebraska's graduated licensing system for teen drivers



It's a weird feeling, trying to piece together another person's life, or just know what still goes through their minds. It could be as simple as not paying a traffic ticket. And that's understandable for someone who rarely abided by the law, stiff upper lip toward the drudgery of authority. Even if it's speeding or wrong u-turn or failure to stop. Stuff that the average citizen will get stopped with. Driving is a privilege is that saying of the statement. From the time I turned sixteen years old, driving is a privilege. I don't make light of it, there's truth in that. I've driven with reckless abandon over the years, thinking that's just a quickest way from point A to B. Plus, I drove several different cars over the years, and haven't wrecked one for a long time, no big deals. I'm still sixteen, I'm still prone to trying to get there faster, to display some erratic driving. But for the most part, I drive within the lines. No reason to get real stupid out there. That's more of a truth than anything else.



Anyway, we all have our vices, I suppose. For Seamus, it's breaking the law, and God knows what else. I know it's at least his second time on probation. There's a guy running from himself, avoiding the consequences. Trying to just get away with it. Hopefully, it's nothing more than that. He'd be off probation by now. That was February. It's be his month. And he turns 33 tomorrow. That's a hard thought. Just coincidental how I found that. I am beginning to imagine that everything happens for a reason, that God puts us in people's paths to offer us opportunities for grace, for learning, to give us knowledge about what we are doing here.