'proof positive'

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A check arrived from Safety Insurance yesterday for $588.99, an amount that implicitly conceded my son was in no way negligent in a Dec. 15, 2011, fender-bender accident. The amount is probably trivial from the insurance company's point of view. From my point of view, relying on Social Security income, it was significant.

But I do not feel the exultation that generally accompanies "a W" -- a "win." I am glad my son and I went to small claims court to contest the insurance company's judgment that my son was at least 20% negligent. I am glad that I worked up 25 pages of argument to contest that judgment. I am proud of the way my son acquitted himself in the courtroom. And I am happy there was some opportunity to introduce my son to a world peopled by alleged adults ... a world wider than his own high-school-aged bell jar. It was all-in-all a good experience and would have been even if we had lost.

Naturally, I am happy to have the money. I need to buy fire wood for next season and the payment should pretty much cover that. But the ecstatic gloat that goes with 'a W' ...

I'm glad I don't feel that.

I am happy ... but not that happy.
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