Chef Private Key Could Not Be Loaded from /user.pem
I hope I did not waste anyone's time. I found the problem at the top of my 'knife.rb' settings. This is what happens when I spend too much time on something, and really need to just take a break.
I was missing the directory path at the top of 'knife.rb':
current_dir = File.dirname(__FILE__)
So my 'knife.rb' now looks like this:
current_dir = File.dirname(__FILE__)
log_level :info
log_location STDOUT
node_name 'user'
client_key "#{current_dir}/user.pem"
validation_client_name 'digitalocean-validator'
validation_key "#{current_dir}/myorg-validator.pem"
chef_server_url 'https://ec2-XX-XX-XXX-XXX.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com/organizations/myorg'
cache_type 'BasicFile'
cache_options( :path => "#{ENV['HOME']}/.chef/checksums" )
cookbook_path ["#{current_dir}/../cookbooks"]
Hopefully I can at least help someone who may have experienced this. Take care.