A String of Coincidences? Not...

   Coming toward me on the cart path this morning was a man wearing an Auburn shirt. That is AUBURN spelled in big letters, and I could read it from quite a distance. As is true of a lot of folks on the path in the early morning, he had a dog walking beside him. I knew neither he nor his dog was familiar to me, so I prepared to say hello and keep moving.

   But his dog, Maggie, I found out later, wanted to visit, so I stopped to pet her and strike up a conversation. He mentioned that Maggie liked to chase deer, and he had seen a couple while walking last evening. My wife and I had seen these also as we drove out to meet some friends for dinner.

   The man, Joel was his name, I found out in passing, just said that Maggie like to chase deer and squirrels back home, and so I asked where he was from. Monticello was the answer, and I commented that we had been there and then told him about the courthouse tour that we were on. Monticello is the county set of Jasper County and had a nice older courthouse, built in 1908 which we had visited.

   Then, as if this was the main news event in the country the past few days, he asked if I had heard about the tragic fire in Hancock County, to which I replied in the affirmative, telling Joel that we had been there and had taken that photo.

   I then told him that I remembered an older white church in Monticello that I liked and had a photo of.

   He knew the church and, in fact, had a lumber company nearby.

   I asked him about what brought him to St. Simons, and he said his wife had inherited a house in that area and they came to stay periodically. Of course this led to more questions and I learned that Her parents were the Fowlers, who lived in our old neighborhood, came from Atlanta, and were the first people who had us over to dinner after we moved here in 1995.

   After we talked for a few minutes about his family and mine, we parted to continue our walks, and, as I walked on around, I got to thinking about the places and people we had in common.

   How often is that? The reason it all came to light was because a dog wanted to be petted, and two people were able to share.

   I'm sure I would be able to share lives with more folks if I just took advantage of opportunities that walked up to me like that.

   There just could be a deeper reason for all that conversation this morning. God knows it was not just a chance encounter, but I would never know unless I did more than wave and say "hello".

   Makes me wonder who I have missed in my hurry up life.

   Slow down and see.