Convergence

 So...A couple of weeks ago, I happened to be surveying the vastness of Rancho Juvat looking for things that might be about to go awry. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a bit of motion.  Whipping out my memory device (some folks use it for communicating, I use it for memory assistance e.g. calendars, notes,  voice notes, and in this case, pictures) and snapped a quick pic of the culprit.

A quite skinny, if vocal, cat.  That evening at dinner, we had the Traditional New Member of the Family Formal Naming Ceremony.  Committee members were Myself, as the Decision Maker, Mrs J as the Override Judge, DIL (hadn't left for Honk-Honk! yet) and a Friend of hers who was visiting, were the remaining committee members.

I explained the procedures (there are none) and the nominating process began.  Cat, Kitty, Puddy Tat were quickly nominated and eliminated.  At that point, DIL's Friend said "Chairman Mao" (Contrary to popular belief the Dead Chinese Dictator's name is evidently pronounced MEE-Ow. Who knew?).

The nomination was instantaneously confirmed by a unanimous round of laughter.

Chairman Mao seems to have taken up residence in the horse barn, which is fine by me as long as she earns her keep by keeping mice at bay.  However, she takes her evening meal on our back patio.

Regarding Outside Cats, this appeared on PowerLine this Saturday.  I believe it to be completely accurate.

Also a couple of weeks ago, I had written that I had had an excellent Medal of Honor post in mind when I noticed that one of the sources I found happened to be a post written by myself.  However in the Military.Com article I cited there was reference to a book written by the recipient's, Henry "Red" Erwin, grandson.  

So, me being me, I went to Amazon and purchased "Beyond Valor: A World War II Story of Extraordinary Heroism, Sacrificial Love, and a Race against Time ".  

For those not familiar, I'll synopsize the story. Sergeant Erwin was a radio operator in a B-29 late in WWII in the Pacific.  On April 12, 1945, he was in the Lead B-29 in an attack on Mainland Japan.  That B-29's mission was to find the target and then mark it by dropping phosphorous bombs on it.  Other B-29s would then use that mark to drop their bombs.  Unfortunately, when Sergeant Erwin dropped the bomb through a special chute, it came back up and started burning inside the aircraft.  It produced so much smoke that the pilot, 30' forward of Sergeant Erwin, could not see the instruments to fly the airplane and it started into a descent towards the ground.  Sergeant Erwin knew that the aircraft was doomed if the bomb continued to burn, so he picked it up, tucked it under his arm and made his way forward to the cockpit where he threw it out the cockpit window before collapsing.  The crew wraps him in blankets to suffocate the burning phosphorous (which ignites in the presence of Oxygen and burns at 1000+^o) and diverts to Iwo Jima, fully expecting that the Sergeant would die.  General LeMay approves the Medal of Honor for him, and it's confirmed via radio-telegram by President Truman within 6 hours of LeMay becoming aware of the episode.  It was presented to Sergeant Erwin on Iwo Jima, still with the expectation he would not survive.  

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He passed away in 2002.

The book goes into much more detail on the episode and I heartily recommend reading the book.  I also advise keeping a box of Kleenex handy.  But aside from the unbelievable bravery and self-sacrifice of Sergeant Erwin, two things stood out.  The first was his belief, as the episode is ongoing, that the Lord had a plan for his crew and it didn't involve them dying.  The second occurred during his long recovery in the hospital (40+ surgeries and 3 years), that the Lord had a destiny in mind for him after the war and his actions on the plane forged him for that destiny.

It's an excellent book.  I highly recommend it.  It also talks a lot about the state of the war at that point and problems and solutions and, very much, is descriptive of the horrors of war. It's a tough book to read, but well worth the effort. Evidently, there's a movie being made from it.  Not sure if I'm strong enough to watch that.

That destiny thing?  I've been thinking about my destiny for a long time, well before I learned of Sergeant Erwin. I had believed for a very long time (maybe back to grade school), that I would become a Fighter Pilot.  So much so that when it came time for College, the only place I applied was the Air Force Academy.  Got a nomination and while waiting for the acceptance letter, a couple of friends who were going to Texas Tech tried to talk me into applying there also.  To get them off  my back, I wrote a letter asking for a catalog and admittance requirements, but no application forms.

A short while later, I got a letter from the Academy.  Unfortunately.....

I'm fairly down in the dumps and wondering about my "destiny".  A couple of weeks go by and HS Graduation nears, I finally get a letter from Texas Tech.  Opening it, it begins with "...congratulations on having met the high academic standards for admission..."  I hadn't sent them a transcript or any other information other than the catalog request.

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Long story short, I enrolled.  That was THE turning point in my life, and I've always wondered about it looking back.  What would I do different, if I could do it again, that sort of thing.

Anyhow....

My Dad told me to enroll in ROTC to offset the cost of a degree.  I did, got a scholarship and managed to be in the top two graduates in my graduation year. Which was a good thing, since Texas Tech AFROTC only got two pilot slots, because Jimmuh was President and we were going to cut the military.  

So, I went to Pilot Training, graduated high enough to get a fighter from a UPT class where everyone was a distinguished graduate from ROTC, Went to Kunsan AB (probably met Sarge in line at the BX or Barbershop), went to Moody where I became a somewhat competent Fighter Pilot and met the woman who would be my Wife.

But still I puzzled over why it took so much hoop-jumping to get to this point in life.  This last Sunday, I think I had an insight.  The Gospel was from Mark 10:2-16 . This is the passage about Marriage and Divorce.  Heard it a gazillion times.  However, this time the Pastor, in his sermon highlighted this passage:

 Jesus replied.  “But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female." (emphasis mine).  

The Pastor's point was not that God made male and female, (he did), but Jesus had used the terms to mean the Man and Woman in the marriage he'd used as an example. That God had made THEM specifically for each other, and had, since the beginning of time, always intended for them to be married.

I'm going to take that as an explanation of all the actions, decisions, ups and downs that got me to the Crud Table at the Moody Officer's club on Friday, January 9th 1981, serving the cue ball against a lovely young female LT, who promptly smacked the object ball into a corner pocket.  Said action gave me the opportunity/requirement to buy her a drink.

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Life has been excellent ever since.  Just took me 40+ years to figure out that the Lord has wanted us together for a VERY long time and it just took a couple off bounces of the billiard rails to finish getting me where he wanted me to be. Everything before that was just positioning.

Peace out, y'All!