Witness

I just want to start out by giving all the blame, and the glory, to God for what I'm about to write, because I spent 12 minutes asking Him what to do, and this is what happened...

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One of the best things about being a middle aged runner in Bowling Green is that the campus and the student neighborhoods are nice, well-lit, well-traveled places to run at night, and I am really, really grateful for that. But one of the worst things about being a middle aged runner 

One of the worst things about being a middle aged runner in Bowling Green is that it is filled with impossibly fit and skinny college students. And some nights as I have huffed and puffed through a run, or stepped down to a walk, I have seen their beery eyes peering at me and, on occasion, have heard them mock me. It doesn't make me mad; it is a little embarrassing. And I always think, man, I was exactly the same way when I was in college, and if they knew what God has brought me through, they'd probably be cool with it and we'd all be friends. 

So tonight, I rounded the corner of Ridge and Main (my one mile mark), and a girl comes flying off the porch of the party house there, a beautiful little Arts-and-Crafts that is way too wonderful a home to be student ghetto. Anyway, this girls starts running alongside me and slurs out "Come have a drink with us!!" I begged off three times, and told her, I only have one kidney, I'm in the middle of a workout, how about some other time. By Ridge Elementary School, she'd had enough, and walked back to the house.

And I kept running.

And I couldn't get out of my head. Should I have stopped? Was this a chance to tell my story? Was it a chance to - and I really, really hate using evangelical terms - but was it a chance to witness? So I kept running up Ridge, past Sorority Row, past Mac, past Oak Grove Cemetery, and up to Student Health Services, and Fr. Mychal Judge's prayer was in my head: "Lord, take me where you want me to be, tell me what you want me to say, and keep me out of your way!" I doubled back on Ridge, and headed back toward that house, still unsure if I was going to stop. Just take me where you want me to be...

I found myself charging up their steps like a bull moose, and yelled out, "You still got that drink?!" I'd like to think that for just a minute, I saw a glint of fear in their eyes... 

The girl who had come out to run with me says, "Ohmygod, you gotta come out and run with me for a Vine!!!" and I said, "Fine, but you gotta promise to listen to my story!" So I go back to the corner of Main and Ridge, run back by the house, she runs back out next to me, to do a semi-accurate historical interpretation of her initial run with me, fifteen minutes or so earlier. I walk into this house party, which reminded me of a Joe Peiffer Columbia Courts party, and one of these kids goes to get me a bottle of water. The girl who ran with me says, "Tell your stoooorreeee..." So I tell this girl about the run, the pain (left out the 'no pooping' part), the surgery, the DVT, and being told I'd never run. And I told her, that's why I run, and it's only through God's help that I can run and deal with cancer. She gets tears (I'll put that on the Zimas, or whatever the hell it is college girls drink today), and asks me to tell the story to everyone else. So now, I'm on the front porch of this place, with God knows how many kids, telling me story. The frat boys are high fiving me. I finish my water, make a three pointer into the recycle bin, tell them I gotta go, and then these three dudes with cigarettes...

Hey God? Remember when I said "Tell me what you want me to say?"

Well, "Don't f*ckin' smoke" is what came out of my mouth. And then I ran down the porch and around the corner toward home. Celeste, tell Joe that the first thing I thought of was the night in college that he, Aaron, Riccardi and I met that bum who was our train-jumping tutor. 

So, I think I witnessed tonight. And I'm pretty sure it would be wholly unacceptable by most religious folk, and I'm pretty much OK with that. I wrote them a letter that I'm going to leave on their doorstep tomorrow with a case water. Hopefully it will be a little more eloquent!