250306 Destiny

There are two schools of thought on destiny.

One says that destiny is bunk; we make our own way in life.
The other believes that our lives are planned out before we are born and there is no way to change it.

I am from the latter school and I believe that my destiny has been according to plan and I wouldn’t change it even if I could.

I met Joyce in the month of June. In July I had a dream. I was standing at an altar in my dress blues and marrying her. I hadn’t even decided to enlist in the navy and yet six months later we were married in the exact same way as the dream predicted.

During my time working on the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk there were several times when I could have easily been killed on that deck, but it did not happen.

There were two times on liberty in the Philippines when I was staring down the barrel of a forty five caliber pistol pointed at me by an angry Filipino. But the owner did not pull the trigger. I didn’t know what I did to anger anyone. I was just sitting having a beer, both times.

Once long after leaving the navy, Joyce and I walked into a BlockBuster video store to rent a movie. We walked right into a robbery in progress. The gunman turned and pointed his pistol and said freeze. Joyce started to back out of the door and I had to grab her to keep her from getting shot and likely me too.

So here I am today, almost 80 years old. Why I’m still alive, I don’t know, perhaps I never will. All I can say is, it’s my destiny.

Brother Bill