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.