Signposts

                        There are so many signposts I passed in my life I did not see until
                        they were only a dim memory. But like most paths that have wandered
                       off into obscurity there was another path back somewhere to bring one
                       around full circle to the same signpost once again.

                       But in youth, where exuberance reigned and common sense was still
                       a mystery we all did many things we sometimes reflect back on in those
                       quiet moments. Moments where we can now smile at the thought of
                       what might have been. Would we have done right and gone on to prosper
                       or were we saved from what should not have been. It is now, in those
                       times where experience, age and faith have come to let us know, in all
                       probability we were saved from our own ignorance and the foibles of youth.

                       In that vein, I remember, with a smile, a time of youthfulness, of wearing the
                      mythical white hat and riding an invisible white stallion into the fray, all for the
                      glory of love. It was a time long ago and far away, as they say. Back to the
                      early years of college. There was a girl. And of course she was beautiful.
                      We worked in the same place and as we talked, love, or hormones, grew
                      ever stronger. A product of an abused home she was engaged. A marriage to
                      get her away, for anything would be better. Afraid, or ashamed ( I could easily
                      justify things in those young days ) to cancel the wedding, I came up with a
                      solution. Well....Haven't you all wanted to stop a wedding sometime. To stand
                      up, when they ask does anyone object ? And ,haven't you all been to some
                      weddings where you wish you had ?................ Anyhow, back to the story.

                     It was to take place in a church just down the road about 10 miles. So on the
                     day it was to be, there I was at the church. With a friend, close enough and
                     foolish enough to fight a rear guard action should one be required. We sat and
                     waited, and waited, and waited. No one came. We smiled and laughed, thinking
                     she had gotten the courage to cancel it, and drove back to the college. When
                     we got there, in high spirits of course, parking my invisible stallion and throwing
                     the mythical white hat into the corner, we ran into a friend of hers.

                    How about XXXXX's wedding, I laughed. "It was beautiful wasn't it" she said, "but
                    it was so strange. Before she said I do, she waited for a long time, and looked
                   all around as if waiting for someone."   My mind reeled in confusion, my heart
                   fell all the onto the floor,  my mythical white hat crumbled in dust,  and my invisible
                   stallion whinnied an evil echoing laughter.

                  In my ignorance of the new area of the country I was in, and the exuberance of
                  my far too young years, I had gone to the wrong church. Yes, sigh....it was true.
                  There were two churches by the same name in two tiny towns only 5 miles apart.
                  And so there I was, ready, waiting at the wrong one.

                 Did I wonder what would have happened in my life had I gone to the right one ?
                 I did for awhile, until I began to know, I had done the wrong thing for the right
                 reason and also the right thing for the wrong reason, and luckily both had failed.
                 I was a good thing in the end, and I learned things about myself. About how far
                 I would go for what I believed in, and best to question what was it I believed in.

                 I smile now, as I think about those days, who I was, and who I am now. I would
                 not go back and change it, but sometimes I wonder, and my eyes grow bright,
                 just thinking about slinging the doors open, holding out my magic sword high,
                and yelling  "I object"................................ Anyone need a wedding stopped ?

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