NAIVETÉ : HOW DID I EVER SURVIVE!

My wife Jane insists that God has assigned a special convoy of angels to accompany me and to save me from own naiveté. She may be right.

Even though I grew up in the country surrounded by animals of all kinds my sex education was greatly delayed. I will never forget my conversation with my friend Clarence. I said, “Clarence, I have been watching our chickens play tag. Why is it always the rooster that is “it and never the hens?” His look at me was one of amazement at my ignorance.

Then I was a slow learner. When I was single and principal of a Lutheran school in a small town I very seldom went to a bar. But one night the School Board meeting had been really rough and I decided I needed a beer. While nursing it alone I had really not noticed the female on the other end. The bar tender came and said, “The lady down there asked me to ask you if you come from Indiana. She thought she may have seen you there.” My honest response, “Oh no.I am from Texas but my fiancé is from Indiana.” And then I finished my beer and headed home


Talk about a slow learner. Years later I was leading a workshop near O’Hare airport and at the end of the day was going over my notes in the lounge. I noticed there was a female at a near-by table but stuck to my work. I do not recall seeing her leave. As I was leaving I noticed that she had left her hotel room key on the edge of her table. I dutifully took it to the barkeep saying, ”I think the lady who just left forgot her keys.” He gave me the same look I had gotten from Clarence 20 years earlier.

My children couldn’t decide if I was naivé or stupid. This was about an investment in Las Vegas land. I met a young man on the golf course at Torrey Pines. He seemed credible and was a likeable chap. He was offering shares in a syndicate that was buying raw land in the Las Vegas area. It sounded good to me. I cashed in a very small life insurance policy and used the money for a down payment and then financed the balance of an $18,000.00 investment. After ten years I had paid off the loan. The land still just sat there. My kids wondered if the city would reach that far north in their lifetime. Then a letter came from the city of North Las Vegas. They were building an access road around the property. They needed to acquire just a small edge of the property. The land was valued at $5,000.00. They were willing to purchase it for $25,000.00 I checked the offer with a friend at church. He said “Accept it with a certified response before the day is out.” I did and the check arrived and cleared. Nothing for 10 years. Then an offer for $278,000. That check too was good. That land is now helping pay for my retirement home-and my kids still shake their heads.

My pastor surprised me most of all. He couldn’t decide if I had faith or was just incredibly naive. The national Lutheran Church had asked Jane and me to go to Hong Kong. Our task was to help set up a school system in the British Crown Colony swarming with refugees from Mao’s China. I didn’t even know where Hong Kong was, spoke no Chinese and had never managed more than one other staff person. We went. The Chinese overlooked my ignorance, youth, and my slowly learned Cantonese. The British winked at my American assertiveness and risked money and land rights. Fellow missionaries prayed. We sewed some seeds. Today there are more than 25,000 students and 700 teachers in that system.

Naiveté, dumb luck, divine providence? Some of each but I continue to bet on the last one.