From The Storyteller
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April 29, 2019, Train
“I’m going to war and all these guys are worried about is getting a seat on the train for the ride from Morgan Park to downtown Chicago.” May 24, 1967 and the USAF has accepted my offer to join. The induction station is downtown, and everyone from my neighborhood who works downtown was on that train with me. “What’s you got in the bag?”, “Clothes, I’m joining up today.”, “Oh, okay.” This 10 second conversation feels really strange because I’m going to war, and all my friend can say is, “Okay”. I remember that train ride often because during that 45 minute ride something happened, and my view of the world changed forever. It was the first time in my life that I felt the world out there knew me by name, and I had no clue where it was going to lead. Over the 5 plus decades since then, I’ve re-experience that same feeling many times. It refreshes my awareness of the fact that the world still knows me by name, and I’m still clueless about where it’s going to lead next. Fact: There are roughly 7 billion people alive today, and not one of them is exactly like me. Fact: The universe began growing roughly 13.5 billion years ago. Fact: Because of my few years on planet Earth I’m a microscopic piece of the creation story, and small as that piece is, the world still knows me by name. Wow! In 1967 I couldn’t name that feeling. Today I can. It’s the feeling I had as a child on Christmas Eve. It’s the feeling of anticipation. Something good is coming, I’m a part of it, and I can hardly wait to see what it is. Moral: Each of us is a piece of the creation story and the world really does knows us by name. |