By Steve Flairty
Kentucky by Heart
I’ve thought a lot about being a grateful person as Thanksgiving season has arrived. It seems like the right thing to do, and my personal religious faith encourages me to have “a grateful heart.” One source I read stated that there are at least 43 Bible verses that clearly promote the action.
But recently, the stress of dealing with an identity theft issue had been pushing back on my inclinations toward having, as often is expressed, an “attitude of gratitude.”
Much of my time and energy was expended in responding to emails, phone calls, and sitting in a banking office trying to sort things out. There have been checks returned and fraudulent charges to two of my bank accounts. A small check was stolen, and two large checks were written using it. The perpetrator also attacked my Amazon account. It left me, at times, with a sense of powerlessness and even humiliation. All because some narcissistic person out there chose to steal from another human being.
But over the last few days, especially as this ordeal hopefully gets behind me, thoughts of the good people who worked diligently with me to resolve the complications and reverberations from the attack have helped renew my spirit.
One of my bankers has literally worked with me for hours over the course of several meetings. She has listened patiently, counseled me on measures to take, and has never failed to smile when meeting for another grueling session. Other employees in the same bank have been supportive, too. And when the issue spread to another of my banks, an official there was also considerate and professional, and she quickly took action to mitigate the problem.
During the tumultuous time, I took two different trips to Frankfort to both my teachers’ retirement and social security offices to help resolve issues, and people there were also very helpful and understanding.
I took my phone to a company, as advised, to have it looked at for bad actor intrusions. A kind and knowledgeable employee checked it out carefully and politely answered all my questions — and the follow-up ones — to my satisfaction. Then I took my laptop and desktop computers to a local geek repair shop and handed my problems over to a locally respected expert. He gave me great service and provided crucial tips to ward off cybercrime. I hadn’t considered such advice so seriously in the past. This life episode changed me, hopefully for good.
Friends have been supportive, too, and my wife, Suzanne, has been patient with a preoccupied, frustrated spouse.
Now more than ever, I am eternally grateful that the good guys in my life outnumber the bad guys. That, and Mom’s frequent advice to me while I was growing up, “Steve, there’s always someone worse off than you,” provides an antidote to self-pity that I draw on regularly.
I remember the wise words of Mr. Rogers to use when we are in trouble: “Look for the helpers.” I did, and he was right. I am grateful.
Happy Thanksgiving, all.