Yesterday Bill and I met with our financial advisor. She took a gander at our financial situation, looked at us sadly, and said, “I’m so sorry to tell you that your financial outlook looks worse than that of Bob Cratchett. Without the help of Ebenezer Scrooge after his visits with the ghosts, you are in deep trouble. I hope you weren’t planning on a goose for Christmas.”

Just kidding. In fact, she gave us a great deal of peace when she told us that our outlook was good, and that we probably would be able to buy food for another year, provided the inflation rate stays the same and we don’t plan on goose for Christmas.

Just kidding again. We’re going to fine, according to someone way smarter than me.

I’m always interested in smart people. I’m also interested in the different ways that people are smart. I wonder why she can look at a financial statement and make sense of it, while I look at a financial statement and the numbers start swimming before my very eyes. I take comfort in the fact that she probably (maybe?) can’t diagram a sentence. Or write a blog.

I, on the other hand, not only could diagram a sentence should that even be a thing anymore, but I write a blog most days. Take that!

The whole left brain/right brain is interesting to me. I am amazed that some — if not all — of my grandkids seem to have both left brains and right brains. If I look at my nine grandkids and try to figure out if they like reading, I would suggest that two-thirds like to read and write. But it seems like three-thirds (yes, I know that’s all of them) seem to either be good at, or at least get decent grades in, math. I, on the other hand, got passing grades in math, but abandoned math classes as soon as possible. In fact, I was somehow able to get a BS degree without taking a single math class in college. I did take a couple of science classes (including my four hours of F, which is another blog post altogether), but I escaped taking any post secondary math.

I couldn’t help my grands with math if my life depended on it. In fact, one night when I was babysitting Kaiya, Mylee, and Cole, I had to help them with their homework. When Court broke that news to me, I immediately told him that I was entirely unable to help even little Cole with math. He assured me that they all had full capabilities of completing math homework without my help. It’s a good thing, because I missed the whole “new math” thing and so the core math thing escapes me entirely.

At any rate, I’m thankful that God gave us two sides of our brains, because I’m bound to get one of the sides to work for me. I’m also thankful our financial advisor gave us a few more months to live.