Samaritan Walking

“And I loved deeper,
And I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I've been denying,
And he said someday I hope you get the chance,
To live like you were dyin'”
~Tim McGraw

I was starting to feel a little bit sorry for myself. We’ve been swamped here at the paper. I’ve made a few mistakes, like leaving out names or getting names wrong. Then I felt guilty for taking three days off from work to take a class in Sioux City while they were so swamped with Charter Oak Achievement Days and the Monona County Fair. Then I felt guilty about not spending enough time with my family this summer.

Then I met someone who reminded me that we shouldn’t wallow in how hard life can seem, instead we should keep busy living it, better yet, we should celebrate it.

I was driving home from class Thursday night, feeling sorry for myself because the air in my truck doesn’t work when I saw this tall, lone walker along the highway between Charter Oak and Ute. I wondered about offering him a ride, but we were headed in opposite directions. Besides he had a huge backpack, perhaps he didn’t even want or need a ride, perhaps he wasn’t hitchhiking, maybe he was some kind of camper.

So I missed my chance to be a good Samaritan and just went home.
I saw him again the next day on my drive in to Mapleton to work. I thought it was odd, the same tall figure with a long walking staff and a yellow shirt, this time walking toward Mapleton. Both times he smiled and waved at me.

This time I was in a hurry, I wanted to get into work to get a head start on the Achievement Days edition. Ten pages of kids and livestock. I was bound and determined to get as much done on it as I could- it was the least I could do after having been gone all week. Again, I passed him by.

Once there I realized that I’d left a cable at home so I couldn’t transfer any photos from my digital camera to the computer. I’d have to go all the way home to get it or we wouldn’t have pictures of the pen-of three swine winners. I had to run home.

There he was again, a little further. The morning was hotter and more humid. It finally occurred to me that maybe there was a story here. Maybe this was one of those people who walks cross-country to raise money for some good cause. His yellow shirt did remind me of Tour De France champion Lance Armstrong’s “Live Strong” campaign. Worst case scenario, he might be an eccentric traveler with an interesting story to tell.

I thought I should slow down and take his picture, then maybe offer him some help, a ride or at least ask him his story. Alas, when I reached for my camera, I realized that I’d left it on my desk at the office in Mapleton. Strike three, I proved that I’m no good Samaritan.

On the way back to work with my cable I didn’t see him again. Vanished like some tall wizard in a fable where the protagonist is given three chances to make a wise choice but fails.

Fortunately for me, this twenty-something sage had a cell phone and wanted some publicity.
Eric Latham was walking across the country for cancer research. Eric believes that almost everyone’s lives have been touched by cancer.

Sure enough. My grandmother died when I was ten or eleven. I’m not even sure what she really died of, because I really only knew her from the week or two our family spent every other summer back in Michigan where she lived. But what I learned later is that she lived with tumors in her her brain for decades.

When I was in seventh grade I had two classmates with cancer, out of a class of maybe only thirty kids. Mike Miller’s tumor was the size of a football when they removed it. Jon Fladhammer had to have his thigh amputated. Instead of removing his whole leg surgeons re-attached his lower leg backwards, so that his heel would function as a knee when he was fitted with a prosthesis. Neither of those guys lived to graduate from high school, but let me tell you, each of them milked life for everything they could during the time they had left. Jon in particular spent his few years telling people about incredible God’s love for them and how precious life is.

Of course this summer has been a difficult one for Lyon Publishing, home of the Schleswig Leader, COU NEWSpaper, and Mapleton PRESS.

In June we lost Jackie Pester, NEWSpaper reporter for almost thirty years. She had only known that she had lung cancer since April of this year. Our Publisher, Mike Lyon is recovering from back surgery to help him with complications brought on by his long time battle with the disease. Meanwhile our main reporter and webmaster, Bonnie Schroeder, of Schleswig has had scare after scare with her father going in and out of the hospital as part of his battle with cancer.

After eight years, she’s leaving us to work at the Hoffmann Agency office in Schleswig so that she can be closer and more available for her parents. I’ve only worked here two summers, and not in a row, but she’s one of the most beautiful people I know, and I’ve come to think of her as a sister.

I feel like I missed another opportunity with Eric Latham, because I failed to ask him about his faith. You know how you’re not supposed to talk with people about sex, politics, or religion. But Eric is so full of joy and enthusiasm, it’s hard to believe how much time he spends talking to cancer patients. You’d expect someone who’s seen so much suffering and heard so many tragic stories to become depressed or jaded. Just the opposite is true of Eric. Surely this kid knows something that the rest of us overlook. Surely he believes that death is only the beginning for the people he gets to know, the people who’s names he has memorized religiously.

After 93 days of trudging along through the summer sun with a 70 lb pack on his back, you’d think he’d feel sorry for himself. You think he’d get lonely. But I have a feeling that he isn’t walking alone. Now I don’t know because I failed to ask him, I even failed to think about it until I sat down to write this column, but I bet he has someone to talk to the whole time he’s walking. I bet when he gets tired it’s not just the thought of the cancer patients he knows that gives him strength. I bet his strength is renewed like the Eagle’s (Isaiah 40:31).

If I’m wrong, I hope he’ll forgive me for assuming that this is so, I don’t want to force God on anybody. But since what Eric is doing is helping so many people, I pray that the Lord will walk with him anyway. Eric, the tall, lone stranger walking along the highway is himself a good Samaritan and an example for all of us.