The other morning I was at a local park a few miles from our house, standing outside my truck about to leave. The park has a three mile loop, about half of which runs through a beautiful canopy of giant old Oak trees draped with Spanish moss and air plants. I try to go there at least once a week for a run or run/walk depending on how the old knees are feeling that day. I was wiping off the buckets of sweat I was covered in from a sea of Florida August humidity and about to climb inside when a lady in a white Cadilac SUV pulled up and rolled down her window.
“I like all you got going on there with your stickers”, motioning to my back window, where I have a variety of Stable Genus bumper stickers featuring messages like “A Little Less Crazy, A Little More Sanity” and “Intolerance is not a Virtue, Rage is not a Strength” and “Good Vibes All Tribes, Come Together America” and “No Culture Wars”. There are also a few others that are not of my creation like a large American Flag sticker and a couple for former Governor Charlie Crist who is running again for governor against King Culture Warrior Ron DeSantis. All together my back window is a lot to take in, and I guess she was taking it in while I was running. She didn’t really tip her hat whether she was in favor of the messaging, including the Crist stickers, or wasn’t. I had my suspicions, but you never know for sure these days, unless someone directly tells you their party or positions. We never got into an overt political discussion.
After she said she likes my stickers I said, “thank you, I appreciate it”. She nodded, cocked her head a bit, and went on, “I hope you’re prepping. Are you a prepper?” It was a strange question I thought and it took me a second to process. But, I took it in stride, nodding my head said, “Yeah I do a little prepping, never hurts to be prepared, right”. In the month before all pandemic hell broke loose in mid march of 2020, faint whispering had turned into a growing hum of alarming chatter in the news. Concerned, I had begun to get ahead of things a little and stockpile some extra food and supplies. My wife would probably describe it as a whole lot of food and supplies, but I was worried that things could get really weird and I wanted to take some basic precautionary measures for my family. Maybe the supply chains would completely grind to a halt? Maybe all the grocery stores would shut their doors? And maybe no one one could safely leave the house because of social unrest, etc? Who knew how things would play out? Some degree of all of this happened, of course, but luckily after the first month or so the gears of society began to grind again and Americans didn’t run out of food, just toilet paper for a short while.
So, the nice lady in the Cadilac responded, “Good, good I’m glad you do, I definitely do too (prep). You really should be prepping, everyone should be, because we need to be ready for some things, I think.” I guess in this moment I could have probed her mind a bit more, to get a better sense of what she thought was coming. In retrospect I wish I had, but in the moment I just responded with, “I hope people can just stay calm and cooler heads can prevail.” We both understood what we were speaking to though; some possible national armed conflict, a possible civil war.
Was there something else though, that she knew about? Beyond what most all of us are keenly aware of, that the country is at an elevated level of political and social tension, was there some insider info she had about a specific plan or plot? Could I have dug a little deeper and maybe she would have revealed some larger impending assault on government institutions and individuals orchestrated by the far right? I don’t know, but in the end I didn’t press further.
She responded to my statement about people just staying calm and hoping cooler heads would prevail by shaking her head a bit, “I don’t know, we’ll see.” Adding she said, “But I do know that Jesus has a plan, that’s all I can say.” It was as if she was implying that whatever shit storm was coming to a theatre near you, in the form of a right-wing Trumpist army uprising to rescue the Donald from indictment and violently punish his liberal and moderate detractors, well that was all part of the good Lord’s plan. Maybe this was what she was implying, maybe not? The 45th President’s name never came up though. There was a couple second pause, as I nodded and stared back, responding calmly and affirmatively I said, “I have a strong spirituality and faith in God too”. We both smiled and said something along the lines of “well, good luck and have a nice day, take care now” Then she drove off.
Why did I feel obligated to reveal my own feelings on the Lord to this woman? I didn’t go very deep in that moment into my full philosophy on faith but I could just as easily said “well good for you, that’s really wonderful” but in a pleasant way of course. However, I didn’t, I concurred and it was genuine.
Maybe it was also just a nice way to wrap up our impromptu conversation into a little bow, that we had common spiritual interests and were in this together; that we were connected as fellow citizens and humans, in the parking lot of a beautiful park, unsure what God has in store for us in these times of national strife. A little faith in a mysterious power greater than ourselves doesn’t hurt though, humbling if nothing else. It probably helps, I think. It can help all of us as we try to navigate from one perilous news cycle to the next, pushing us collectively towards what seems like some irreconcilable conflict. And speaking of Jesus, maybe we should all try to reacquaint ourselves more with his teachings of forgiveness, humility, caring, and love.
As I imparted to the nice lady, I hope cooler heads can prevail. I also hope we can all step back and realize that it’s in our collective interest to let the wheels of justice roll on; let the facts and rule of law in our country determine the outcomes and not jump to conclusions. Let’s not burn the whole thing down, just because it’s imperfect and not exactly the way we want it to be.
Someday, hopefully sooner than later, as a nation we can finally jettison the cancerous fever dream that is currently driving many of us to the brink of violence; to swear allegiance to party over country; to cultishly follow and martyr a sociopathic Ex-President who definitively lost, to lionize someone who is the opposite of a good Christian and the embodiment of the seven deadly sins; to blindly follow someone who clearly betrayed his constitutional oath of office, on numerous occasions.
We’re not out of the woods yet, that’s for sure, and the Cadilac Prepper Lady ominously didn’t think so either. So, I’m left with that same question: Does she know something I don’t know, is something really bad about to happen? Possibly, but God I hope not. Maybe I should just be grateful to her for our interesting conversation and some good food for thought. While I’m thinking of it also, maybe I should go pick up some extra bulk beans and army MREs, just to be safe. Maybe you should too, just to be safe.