Jerry

I go for a lot of walks.

On this walk I was, ironically, sitting down.

Sitting down with a great view of this beautiful little city.

A man on a bike stopped just off to my right and said, “enjoy this.”

He continued on. This man had strong opinions, but he loved Our city.

By most accounts, this was a strange looking man. Long black hair, a bike helmet with two small side view mirrors on it, black jeans with masking tape around the bottoms, and all sort of reflective stickers and a vest on. But he had a lot to share about life, and death.

One of his strong opinions centered around Christians. The Nazi’s were Christians. Pretty much every atrocity that was every committed was done in the name of “some Jewish corpse”.

Was I offended by this? I’m not sure. More than anything, I just wanted him to know what was true. But I just listened. One of the few things I said was in response to his statement when he leaned close to me and said,

“I have good news: your not a dirty rotten sinner!”

With a smile I responded, “yeah, not anymore!”

Then he launched into his philosophy about how only those with 100% cruel intent were actually evil. I thought of the verse that talked about how an apple tree doesn’t bear figs, and a fountain of bitter water does not give for sweet water. But I didn’t have to. I just listened to him. And for me, that was okay.

It isn’t always okay. I think the reason why I was okay to not talk was because I knew in my heart I wasn’t afraid too.

As my awareness of the evening’s activities became more pressing, I excused myself, with one thing I really felt I needed to say.

This thing would be trite and meaningless in many contexts, but in this one, somehow, I think it meant a lot. Was it my idea to say it? Probably not. But I knew I had to say it, and it makes a lot of sense now as I reflect on it. So from about street’s width away, I called out my last words to him:

“God Bless, my friend!”