What's Your Story?

No talk of autism, bureaucracy, schools or insurance companies today!! (For some reason I envisioned Kermit the Frog doing his 'yyyyeeeeeeaaaaa!' with his little frog hands going wild as he departed the stage after announcing a performer on the Muppet Show. You too?! No? Huh....)

Anyway, yesterday I saw Jesus on the side of Highway 1. And if it wasn't Jesus, then it was someone who a.)thought he was Jesus, or b.) was a distant relative of Jesus delivering His word.

You think I'm kidding, but I am not. Oh how I wish I'd had a camera.

As I drove M to horseback riding we passed by a man with a foot-long white beard, a turban on his head, a white, flowy robe with a dark green shawl over it, leather, Teva-like sandals, and what I am pretty sure were Rayban sunglasses. He was walking along carrying nothing but a simple bedroll. An hour and a half later as we returned home, he was sitting on the side of the road taking a rest. He didn't have his thumb out. He carried no signs indicating his desire to go to 'Santa Cruz' or elsewhere southbound. He was just a dude walking along the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway looking like a prophet.

It made me think how often I see random folks walking, cycling, thumbing their way down this highway. Way more than I have ever noticed anywhere else I have lived. I suppose the ocean calls many this way. It is a beautiful road to travel, to say the least. But what's the deal with some of these people? Where are they going? Do they even know? Do they have a permanent address? Is anyone looking for them? Do they have children who miss them?

I think quite a few of these people are drifters. I used to find the thought of being by oneself horribly saddening and lonely. I have this weird recollection of sitting in a KFC in Bristol, Tennesse, on our family's yearly drive in the two-door Pontiac from New Jersey to Arkansas, to visit relatives. I was probably about seven years old. We were eating our chicken in a booth and there was this shabbily-dressed old man in the booth behind us. I vividly remember watching him eat and feeling that this man was very sad and lonely and that he had no one in his life to eat with or be loved by. I cried when we got back into the car, but couldn't tell anyone why for fear they would think I was silly.

Now when I see people who are alone I just wonder if this is their destiny and if they are happy and content where they are.

I think I'm going to write a song about this. Can't you just imagine it?

I saw Jesus walking down Highway one.
He didn't have a sign or a hitchhiker's thumb.
He had a white beard and a robe made of white.
He was walkin' along no destination in sight.
I think he was a drifter.
I think he was alone.
I think he was a-lookin' for a river to throw a stone.
I saw Jesus walking down Highway one.

Thank you very much, I'll put the pipe down now.
(I kid...really!)