appraised value

Yesterday marked the beginning of my 100-classroom hour appraisal board course, which I’ll complete on Monday the 16th. Out of the 192 hours which make up 8 days, 100 of them will be spent in a hotel conference room. As you can imagine, I may not have a lot of time this week for blog entries or photo shoots, but I’ll do what I can.

Upon my arrival home from my first day of appraisal school, Kai welcomed me by going throwing one of his trademark hissy fits and crying through our dinner. Once Erin and I went through our baby crying checklist (is he hungry, is his diaper dirty, etc.) I remembered a quote I keep nearby: “It’s much easier to ride the horse in the direction it’s going.” It’s said that crying is just another state of being for newborns, and that sometimes there isn’t anything wrong. With nothing to fix, I resolved to take what I got.

Which reminded me of the zen-like lesson of the first day of appraisal school. Today’s topic focused on the sometimes baffling Florida statutes concerning appraisals. The kit containing all of the lesson materials was titled, “That’s just the way it is” — a masterful statement designed to answer all of our possible questions about why the law says this or that. But it’s also the answer to a lot of life’s larger quandaries — I learned that lesson a while ago. Things are the way they are because that’s the way they are. Which reminds me of a powerful quote I keep near my computer:

“Perfection is a state in which things are the way they are, and are not the way they are not. As you can see, this universe is perfect.”

The lesson of the day applied not only to Florida appraisal laws, but to my relationship with my newborn son. Let the good times roll.