Saturday, September 11, 2010

Marking the way

I just got back from doing one of the drop-everything and come-right-now farm jobs (which is about 80% of the jobs here.) I did a very important job. I was a "marker." We just leveled a field which meant that all of the dikes and ditches were gone and we had to replace them. Greg likes them to be straight. Silly person.

After detailed instructions given three times, I drove to the county line, walked south to the power pole, counted back three fence posts and stood in back of the wad of white twine hooked to the barbed wire fence. (Greg had such little faith in my ability to find the place that he insisted that we each take a cell phone....which he never carries any other time. I digress.....)

I stood there and held up a yellow and red bag with a peace symbol (which I and many others in my Viet Nam era generation think of as a "chicken foot")and a white garbage bag so I would make a brighter target.
Greg took aim at me with his tractor and headed straight for me. In other words, I kept him on the straight and narrow. My part was quick and easy, but very very important.

I would like to use this as an analogy for life. Sometimes we just need to be there for someone else to keep them on the straight and narrow. It isn't always complicated. We just need to be where they can "see" us, in real life or in their minds. They know where they should be going. Then it up to them. We can be pretty important in life as markers.