A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY

A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY

My weather-crazed friend, Liz, sent me this dark cloudy photo of Destin, Florida yesterday. At first I thought someone had sent me a picture from somewhere along the northeastern coastline. Someplace with gray skies and colder weather. Truthfully this is not how my home usually looks. I am lucky to live in a place of bright sunshine and the most beautiful beaches in the world. The picture was simply a case of mistaken identity.

This past week I have had another encounter with a case of mistaken identity. I was helping a friend by taking a huge garbage bag of trash from her store to the dumpster. The bag was so heavy that I started dragging it half-way to the dumpster. Of course, the bottom of the bag broke and the garbage spilled all over the grass. I am not happy as I bend over to start picking up the trash. Two young men walk by, whistle, and yell, "Nice butt!" My mood lifts and I turn around smiling to greet my admirers. However, when they see my face they mumble, "Sorry Mam" and run away. I sigh, go back to being unhappy and pick up the rest of the trash.

This meeting helped me remember how important it is to have your identity established so there are no misunderstandings. In yesterday's blog post I told everyone to gather their important papers in preparation for evacuations. Let me urge everyone to make the papers which establish your identity the first documents you gather. You should make copies of your birth certificate, your passport, your drivers licenses, and any other picture I.D.'s. The first step necessary to conduct much of the business required after disasters is proving your identity. This is difficult to do if all the essential documents have been lost.

So go ahead and take a little time now to copy and store these documents. It could save you a great deal of trouble if you are impacted by a disaster. A case of mistaken identity is bad but a case of unknown identity would be awful.

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