Mississippi....looking good on day two.....

Day two in Mississippi---not much to report, long dull roads and nothing much else, with one notable exception. Last night, walking along Old Rt. 72, in Iuka, MS, I was beginning to wonder if I would find a place to sleep. I noticed a storefront type church letting out, and it looked like it might be safe harbor for me. (That means in the back, hidden from the road, in my case, with tent).
Inquiries led me to Brother Darrell Stafford, a bearded and gray-haired and very fit 61 year old man who, with his wife Judy, run the New Life Church in Iuka, MS. I told him who I was and what I was doing, and asked if it would be possible to set up my tent behind the church. Brother Stafford immediately agreed and even requested a picture of me with my cart, which, of course, I obliged happily. He also asked me for permission to use any of my blog entries in the New Life News, a paper that he and Just edit, and that serves Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. Again, I obliged happily. I dug out a John Lennon Imagine NO Hunger pin that I was given to give away, and asked him if he liked John’s music but he said that he did not. I think that John’s disdain for religions has tainted his genius in the eyes of the pious, but his message of peace and love is a universal one that is hard to dislike, since it echoes the teachings of Jesus in the Bible.
I awoke early the next morning and headed out before traffic got bad. I was 7 miles up the road, resting my feet at a gas station, when I heard a voice calling to me. It was Brother Darrell, pumping gas. I greeted him and asked if everything was okay back at the church (I am very very fastidious and leave places exactly as I found them). He assured me that it was fine, and wanted to ask me a question. He wanted to know if I had accepted Jesus as my personal savior, and I assured him that I had not. He told me that his life had been going nowhere until he surrendered himself completely to his faith, and now things are going much better and he has purpose in his life.
I told him that my journey, as it is, is, in part my quest to understand my life and to help me grow better as a person and to help me to see my clear path and direction in life, but that I was not ready to make any kind of commitment like that just yet. I sincerely doubt that I will ever be anything but an atheist, but I do understand the good power of faith, in something, whether it is the power of nature, the power of love, the embracing of kindness to others and seeing beauty where others do not. I once got a fortune cookie that had the following: “You have the ability to see beauty in everything. Do not lose this talent.” I like to think it was MY fortune, written specifically for me, not for a crappy cookie. Oh, wait…make that a BEAUTIFUL crappy cookie.
Huh. I guess it was right.
And to Brother Darrell, who kindly bought me lunch after we talked, I say, thank you. It was a beautiful lunch!