“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.
