Heading south on A-1-A just outside of St. Augustine, with the ocean to the left and beach houses to the right, there is a castle.
Somebody built it as a home and there is no mistaking it. It towers above the beach houses, has the tutor windows and guards for archers to launch their arrows from the top. It is something right out of the thirteenth century.
Every time that I’ve ever driven past it, I’ve admired the hell out of whoever built it. This is someone who doesn’t believe in conforming, thumbs her nose at expectations, and follows his convictions in spite of the cost.
I laugh when I picture members of the Homeowners Association dropping by to complain and wonder if hot oil is poured from the top as they knock on the door. Or when the City Marshall delivers a summons because the castle is out of code compliance if rocks are dropped from on high to get rid the pesky rule enforcer. If you happen to own and live in a castle, you have these kinds of options.
A man’s home is his castle, so goes the old saying, but it’s really not. I wonder if the people living in the beach houses surrounding the castle pop themselves on the forehead and exclaim, “Shit! Why didn’t I think of that?”
Even worse, some guy is probably watering his grass when his wife comes out, folds her arms staring at the castle and says, “Well Skippy you always told me that you give anything but nooooo … you didn’t get me a castle now did you? You are so cheap! Sleep on the couch tonight. Again”!
My friends Johnny O and Judy, then Whitley of all people, have been to St. Augustine recently. It is one of my favorite places in the universe! There is a little hotel at the marina just north of the city where I love to stay. I never tire of wandering down St. George or sitting at the Milltop listening to live music with an incredible view of the harbor and the fort. I just love the place!
I was last there in October. It was Georgia/florida weekend so Mom, Sam, the kids and I drove down A-1-A from Jacksonville to America’s oldest city. I was not in a good place at the time. Suddenly single had turned into definitely divorced. I was burned out from a career that I’d recently walked away from and the settlement stuff was running out so there was all of that to think about. The beloved Dawgs of Georgia were in the midst of a rotten football season that was as painful to watch as I was trying to get through the nights. I wasn’t eating and drank way too much. It was simply an awful time.
Then we passed the castle.
I’ve probably seen it a hundred times and it always mystifies me.
Later that day at the Milltop, I was suddenly in a festive mood. We all laughed and joked and had a good time. The views were as gorgeous as ever and I celebrated all of the wonderful hours I’ve spent there.
And I kept thinking about the castle. Throughout my life I’ve always had a tendency to do things my own way. In college I turned a four year track into five and was basically ordered to declare a major so that they could be done with me as quickly as possible (streaking and the hostile takeovers of a Haunted House and a Baptist Student Union were involved in their reasoning). But I learned how to learn.
In Seminary it took a lawyer to get me out of there as apparently God told everybody else one thing and me another. Who knew God is practical joker? But while I was there this little rag tag inner city collection of little old ladies became the city’s most dynamic and groundbreaking Church.
Back in Savannah a little $40,000 a year, twelve bed homeless shelter morphed into a $13 Million company that helped cut a city’s homeless population by more than half. It’s the only such accomplishment in the United States.
The castle builder in me contributed to these things.
This morning as I was running the beach the sun shone brightly on the ocean creating a sidewalk across the sea that ended at my feet. I love seeing this and have come to attach religious significance to it. Throughout the good days and the terrible days at Union Mission I would run and the eye of God blazed that sidewalk on the sea affirming that I was doing holy things.
The last few years have felt anything but holy. More like hell! But today as I ran I was thinking about all of the things that are next. My brain was wrapping itself around new things, new loves, different work, better adventures and …happiness.
Then I noticed that the golden sidewalk on the sea was wider and broader than I’d ever seen it! It was a road of yellow dancing diamonds that led to the sunshine mixed with ocean that gives us all life.
And I smiled. God was letting me know once again that I’m on the right track. As painful as it’s been, it’s getting better. And the next castle is going to be far superior than the last!
