Lucky Generals

I’ve had a string of good luck recently. Nothing fancy, mind you, but it’s as if the universe decided to hold the door open instead of letting slap in my face.

I was away in Texas recently, preaching at a former church and conducting a thirtieth anniversary wedding. Those were the excuses for going back to a place where we spent too few years, and where our youngest was born and our eldest faced his first challenges as a schoolboy. In short, it was a visit to our past.

Now, such occasions can too often be like high school reunions which are never quite as good or bad as we make them out to be. But in this case, everything went even better than I hoped.

First, the trip down was easy and uneventful. The flight left on time, arrived only 15 minutes late and we were on our way to our hotel just before rush hour. A wicked summer storm came upon us as we drove north, just as the ‘check tire pressure light’ came on in the car. I had a sinking feeling and pulled off to find a gas station in the driving rain.

(You said good luck, right?)

Yes. I happened to pull off just where the rental company had an office, and they swapped my sub compact for – get this – a brand new mustang convertible. “It’s all I have,” she sheepishly said.

“I really don’t mind at all,” said I sounding nonchalant. Secretly giggling.

At the hotel the room had only double beds. I am too old, or rather my wife is too old, to sleep like that. I asked the clerk if there was anything else. She hemmed and hawed about not having a king size except in a suite. I said “Talk to me,” and she remembered how I had already tipped her when I checked in. Lo and behold I had a complimentary king suite (really big room with couch and desk).

We spent the whole next day roaring through the hill country, top down, fluffy clouds keeping the morning heat low. The air was clean and the scenery was as great as I remembered. The next day we toured our old haunts, eating in favorite places and then conducting the wedding.

The next day I preached. Two services. I helped them go to two services 15 years ago and that was what set them free. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces, and so many new ones. And then we had dinner with my old staffers.

At the airport on Monday they put us on an earlier flight, giving us over two hour's head start home. But I said, let’s play, and we poked around Chicago for that extra time, the place we were married and lived for four years. Had a real delicatessen sandwich at Morry’s on the South Side and still got home before dinner.

I thought it was over, the lucky part that is. But maybe not. Had a stroke of it this morning, and perhaps it is a token of more to come. Taking a very long walk because the Y was closed for Labor Day I found $50 on the sidewalk.

Not the lottery, but maybe I’ll spend some of it on some tickets.

Napoleon Bonaparte came to mind. Asked which sort of generals he tried to hire, he replied, “Lucky Ones.”