Saturday, November 1, 2008

What If

First of all, I want to give a shout-out to Thomas. Thanks for being here. Okay, on driving back to Columbia yesterday afternoon, my brother posed a question. "What if we had not moved to SC from New Orleans?" How would our life be different? So, I got to thinking. First of all, we Americans are a mobile people. We move around. If it weren't for movers, everyone would have settled on the East Coast and not ventured west. In some cases, like my ancestors, they moved inland to try their hand at growing things like canabis. I don't suppose that would be a legal argument today, but it is worth a try. So, we moved. When I was born in New Orleans, my father taught at New Orleans Baptist Seminary. My brother was in elementary school. When I was 5, and he was 12, we moved to South Carolina. I know Daddy wanted to move back to South Carolina, since he was from there, and he wanted to be closer to his family. But, it was traumatic for my brother and me. He had to say goodbye to his school friends, knowing he would never see them again. I had to say goodbye to my next door neighbor Paul Price. I have often wondered what happened to Paul. I saw my first egg hatching at Paul's house. I guess it was my first exposure to sex education. When it was time for me to choose a college to go to, my first thought was Tulane or LSU-NO, which is now New Orleans University. But, it was decided that I go to a school in-state, as it was cheaper. But, what if we had never moved to SC? Because of my father being a Baptist educator and minister, we probably would have moved somewhere else. Daddy was sought after for his work. Who knows where we would have ended up? After all, before New Orleans, they had been in Spartanburg, Asheville, Richmond, Atlanta and Houston. And that was all in 13 years. But, I do know that Katrina wiped out our house on Seminary Place in New Orleans, so hopefully we would have not had to experience that awful situation. I would just assume not to deal with any more hurricanes. I have been in too many. Every person goes down their path. Some of those paths are determined by their parents. Others are determined by their jobs. Still others are determined by their families. My path is still fluid. Hopefully, I will be going down a easterly path soon. But, as to conclude this rambling thought today in thinking about "what if", I would never have met my friends--Aubrey, Joni, Del, Chris, Konnie, Jimmy, Mary, Sonny, Pam, Peggy, Ne'cole, Richard, Lenny, Sandra, Talula, Louis, Steve, Judy, Paige, Vicki, Phil, Don, Ginger, James, Tommy, Thom, Mary Ann, Nathan, Payton, Buddy, Melissa, Cathy, Kare, Wanda, Rick, Hank, Craig, and so many more. I am so glad we moved. Sorry, Paul. I hope your life turned out okay.

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