“Signs . . . Signs”
A Sacred Place A Sweet Moment As many of you know, I am knee-deep in my campaign to serve on Covington’s City Council and along with many of my friends,…
As many of you know, I am knee-deep in my campaign to serve on Covington’s City Council and along with many of my friends, putting up signs has occupied our time. Signs are being placed in public places with my name on them and my music saturated brain resurfaced a song from my later teen Ayears by the Five Man Electric Band. The chorus goes like this:
Sign, sign
Everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery
Breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that
Can't you read the sign?
While there is a lot of meaning surrounding that song, I want to offer a couple reflections on this odd journey with putting out signs with my name on them.
The enclosed picture is me putting a sign in the yard of one of my dearest friends and life influencers, Doris Howard. She taught English and Literature at both 9th District Elementary and Holmes High School for 27 years. And while I did not have her in school, she “took me to school” in many ways, because she taught me so many life lessons.
Her gentle kindness in inviting me to her dinner table where I drank iced tea for the first and then leading me to deeper spiritual thinking was an overwhelming influence. I dated her daughter Sandy for several years and even after we went our separate ways, Doris (and Sandy) remained on my “most important” people list.
Doris died on May 30 of this year, just a few weeks from her 100th birthday and I was asked and honored to speak at her Celebration of Life. Recently I drove past her house and had a thought. If Doris was still living and I asked her what she thought of me running for City Council, what would she say? I honestly don’t know exactly, but I have a sense for it. She, like she did so many times, would affirm my calling to serve Christ in the local church and then she would likely say that serving our city is simply a beautiful way to continue to serve.
That thought led me to contact her son David and see what he thought about me putting a sign in her yard and he said, “Absolutely!” So, as I lowered the sign into the ground and looked at her home, my mind was a spinning wheel of pictures and emotions of the many times I knocked on her door knowing she would welcome me with a smile and a hug. Yes, I miss her, and I do not know who I would be without her.