{"id":17733,"date":"2016-08-01T01:01:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/?p=17733"},"modified":"2016-06-11T09:09:43","modified_gmt":"2016-06-11T14:09:43","slug":"no-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/2016\/08\/01\/no-points\/","title":{"rendered":"No Points"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Grand<\/a><\/p>\n

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NO POINTS<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou don\u2019t have enough points, sir.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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The words struck Tom like a hot poker through butter. It was the first time since high school, fifty-years ago, that someone questioned his qualifications. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIn fact, you have none.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cNone???? \u00a0How could I have. . .None?\u201d He swallowed and reached for his tie, feeling the agitation grow within him. Loss of his temper was imminent. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI have your account right here, and there is nothing.\u201d The man sitting over the logbook seemed calm, \u201cIs that your name? Thomas Jacobs, twenty-six Neidemeir Lane, Enfield, Massachusetts.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, yes that is me. I lived there for thirty years and no one else had that name.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cNo son with your name?\u201d He looked up from his book and into Tom\u2019s eyes directly. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cNo we chose to be childless. It was a mutual decision. I can call my wife to prove it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cActually, you can\u2019t.\u201d He looked back down at the book, turned the page and thumbed down the columns. No, I can see you are not being mistaken for another Thomas Jacobs of Enfield, Massachusetts.\u201d The man returned to the page with Tom\u2019s name and turned the book to show him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou see here? Your name. . .\u201d Putting his finger just left of the T in Thomas, he dragged his hand to the entry on the other side of the page. \u201cYou see there is nothing written there.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cBut, But,\u201d Tom felt panic grow. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cNow look at the name above it:\u201d the man remained calm, \u201cThomas Jacobs, twenty-six Neidle Street, Endicott, Ohio over five million points.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cW-W-Who writes this log?\u201d Tom, so angry and frustrated, he stammered. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, \u00a0you do. You choose the direction you are going and if you are going the right direction, you rack up points, if not, then you rack up none.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cHow could I, Thomas Jacobs, esquire, choose the wrong direction, consistently?\u201d He started to turn red. \u201cNo one does that.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cActually, many do.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s absurd.\u201d Tom slammed his fist onto the desk, his anger out of control. \u201cI did a lot of things that should be accounted for in that book.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou did a lot of things, but not the right ones.\u201d he said, not startled.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou mean, when I tutored high school students in French, that counts for nothing?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYou taught them how to speak French, but did you teach them anything else?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThey wanted to learn French and I taught them.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThey learned to use French the way you do as a way that will help get ahead.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd what is wrong with that? Some got into Harvard with that skill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cNothing, but people gain points when they sacrifice for others and teach others to do the same. You made no sacrifices in those tutoring classes and no one learned to sacrifice in them.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s ridiculous. There is more to life than sacrifice.\u201d Tom stood back and screamed to the sky above him.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The man at the desk just simply looked up with a smirk. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Tom, realizing what he said, calmed down a bit. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt would be a sacrifice for you and your wife to have children, right?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou chose not to so that you both could have the life you wanted, right?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cOk, ok you made your point.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I did not\u201d the man stood like a stern school principal about to give a lecture that he had given a thousand times. \u201cThere are many people who have enough points that have not done the right things, but they sacrificed time for prayer; they sacrificed money for their children. They sacrificed career for family; they sacrificed reputation for their faith. While you did all the right things in your own little world that exists in your own little mind. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tom paused, humbled and stunned. \u201cSo, I have to pay?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSorry, without the right amount of points I cannot let you in at all, unless you secure a pardon. I need you to wait in that room while I check with the boss.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tom, head down, turned left and walked into the crowded room. There he sat with others who similarly had no points. They all waited in silence, enduring, heavy\u00a0silence. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  NO POINTS   \u201cYou don\u2019t have enough points, sir.\u201d   The words struck Tom like a hot poker through butter. It was the first time since high school, fifty-years ago, that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[178926,141872],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17733"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17736,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17733\/revisions\/17736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}