The Dotted Lines of Life

“Be good and you will be lonesome.”

So wrote Mark Twain in the inscription to “Following the Equator” which chronicles a trip he made around the world on a steam ship. There’s a photograph of him, white droopy mustache  cigar clinched between his teeth, wearing a full suit and a straw hat. His feet are propped on the railing and he’s staring out to sea.

It’s a great book where America’s humorist of the time takes readers around the world at a time when few made it outside of their town’s limits. His stories introduce men and women who are much different from us … yet at the same time they’re not.

I’ve always liked the inscription and find myself in a contemplative mood this morning. Sitting on the Lido deck of this ship, the calm blue water of the ocean rushes past as I sip coffee.

Tonight at dinner, I’ll swap email addresses with new friends and tomorrow they’ll be new Facebook friends.

When I finished High School, there was no clear cut plan. My mother willed me to go to college so I went. By the time I finished I had a degree, a son and a wife though I still had no clear cut plan.

So I went to Seminary, obtained more degrees, had a daughter, found myself working as a Professional Christian, touched success for the first time and watched it come tumbling down.

A vague notion called me home to the sea. I returned to Tybee, had another daughter, established a career, was published, traveled the world, got divorced and remarried and then watched that all crumble too.

Some think I’m adrift in the sea of life and it certainly may seem that way. There is little conventionality to me. I haven’t followed the dotted lines of life …grow up, find a job, start a family, save for retirement, enjoy it all at the end. There is a certain security that comes from living life this way but I’m not certain its part of any Divine Plan.

Are their Divine Plans anyway?

I think God created life but leaves it up to our parents to give it to us, either planned or otherwise. Then it’s up to us to figure out what to do with it. Some follow the dotted lines plotted out by those before us while others are continuously reborn.

I’m being reborn … again. At this stage, I don’t even have dotted lines to follow. That’s how far out there I am!

Sure, it’s scary sometimes but as I look back over my life I’ve always done things differently. Why should I change now?

Besides, I’m not lonesome!

And a lot wonder how good I am.