PRIDE

pride

image courtesy of photobucket.com

I knew a few things about the old guy, although I’d never met him… I’ve seen where he lives. Thousands of people see his home everyday, but most probably don’t give much thought to him or his home.

He lives about 100 yards from one of the busiest interstates in the country. I’m not sure if the noise from the cars, trucks, and motorcycles affect his sleep. I don’t see how they couldn’t. I’m pretty sure the man whose home is in a pretty desolate spot of desert goes pretty well armed. My guess is if someone tried to rob or harm the old guy they’d be hauled off in a body bag…

It might seem a little presumptuous to make a declaration without having met the man, but let me give a few more details… His land is relatively small. It looks to be about 50 or 60 feet wide, that frontage parallels the interstate and looks like about 80 feet the other way.

His property is pretty visible to the passersby. He has the entire perimeter of his land lined with rocks. Not a rock wall, just two handed sized stones placed neatly next to each other in an orderly fashion.

Despite being in the middle of the desert, the old man’s land is raked clean of grub, debris, weeds, or rocks. The rake lines are visible from the vantage of the freeway looking south.

He has his BBQ area to the west side of the property. Close to the freeway he has some barrels and old equipment lined neatly and orderly. His home is centered in the 50 or 60 foot width perfectly, as if he stepped it off or measured to ensure its perfection. His home is at the front of the back third of his lot.

His home is old and quite small. The home is smaller than most of our children’s bedrooms… His home is a camper. The type of camper designed to fit in the back of a pick-up truck bed, but it sits on the ground with a clean mat in front of the front door.

While the old guy doesn’t have much, what he has is clean and orderly. The grounds indicate a man of pride, not boastful, but glad for what he has. My guess is that he appreciates each day, similar to how our family pets do.

There is one thing that says more about this man and his character than all the other things mentioned. Everything on the old man’s lot is neat and orderly, but all things the man possesses is arranged around the item dead center in his lot.

The man has taken great pains to point to and bring honor to the center of that lot. The center or the heart of that lot is where the man’s heart can be found as well. While all the other material things on the man’s land indicate a person of little means, the center shows something quite the opposite.

This item in the center of his land is first rate, bright and beautiful, no cost was spared for the heart of the man’s land. Perfectly centered in the land is a clean tall pole with a nice dome cap. On it hangs our American flag…

Some passersby might feel sorry for the old man if they even give him a second thought at all. I don’t feel sorry for the that man. I admire him. His actions tell me enough about him to know that he can take care of himself just fine.

I know he loves his country and I’ll bet he’d die fighting for it.

That old guy is a whole lot more free than most of us…

I’m guessing that he will appreciate his future mansion a bit more than the rest of us too…