Don’t you all think we’ve just experienced another beautiful day in North Iowa? I certainly found enough reasons to be outdoors today, to where I wasn’t just going from point A to B, but making large detours while doing it so to experience the wholeness of it all. For some, it was likely just another day because they were too busy dong their own little thing that was more important that finding time to experience Nature at it’s best. Some of the people I work with on a regular basis have been gone on vacation up north to see the Fall colors in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.
I was thinking today about an encounter I had with a gentleman over the weekend where it seemed beyond coincidence that he was at the same place and same time as I was. I’d heard his name mentioned a few times over these many years of selling real estate, but having never met him, I just considered him another relative of a family with whom I’m familiar. The very first time I met him was by chance being a stranger seated next to me at a church luncheon. I really didn’t pay much attention to him until being introduced to him by the man seated across from me. When he told me his name I smiled and said, “Oh the paths we’ve crossed over the years yet having never met.” We hit it off quite well to where we were making dry jokes about each other’s professions. When the lunch was over, I bid my farewells and left. While walking back to my car I thought, “I have a feeling we’ll be having more encounters.” That first meeting was about two years ago, and I can’t believe how many times we both happened to be at the same place and time. The time before Sunday’s encounter I said, “Do you have some kind of GPS tracking device on my car?” He laughed and said, “That would’ve taken the fun out of it!” Sunday’s chance meeting with him and his wife left me with all kinds of little jokes to be made about how no matter how certain he’d not be someplace where I am, he just seems to appear. With having shared my story about him, we’re left to wonder how many times these occurrences happen with others, and if there’s some sort of invisible force that creates these same time—same place happenings. And above all, what universal purpose is there in it all. It would be interesting to hear similar stories from others to see if there really is some sort of pattern that’s created.
I did my civic duty today and went to vote for the vacant seat on the City Council. It seems every time I go to vote, they always have a problem finding me in their computer, and since my last name is spelled differently than it sounds, I have to correct their typing and repeat myself several times. When I got the ballot, I was shocked to find so many candidates running. I know there were interviews with each one, but I didn’t bother reading about them at the time. Every time Alex Kuhn comes to mind, I become terribly sad knowing how much he cared about Mason City. There’s no doubt his memories will be with us for years to come. I only hope whomever wins the election today, will carry on with his vision of Mason City. I always got a laugh out of him the few times I told him he was a James Dean wannabe. Yes, sometimes the good do die too young.
