Why did my passport expire before I ever used it?

Nasreddin once bought a fine leather saddle for the pilgrimage to Mecca. Everyone admired it. He oiled it every month. He checked the stirrups. He told the whole village he was leaving 'once the weather turns.' Ten years passed. The saddle cracked in the cupboard. The donkey died of old age, never having left the village either. This is not a story about a lazy man. He worked hard — at maintaining the saddle. That is the trick: you can perform an intention forever without ever testing it against a date. Your pod nods every time you mention the trip, the course, the gear. Nodding is free. It costs the group nothing. It changes nothing. Your passport did not lapse by accident. It lapsed because 'someday' was never tied to a Tuesday. And nobody in your circle was allowed to ask what happened if it wasn't. Fix the calendar. Then see about your character.