thanking an angel

With the current trend to come up against authority, and yes there have been authorities that have been bad, I had something that happened that made me want to thank one… 

Every one of us has guardian angels of the heavenly variety, but did you realize that we have angels in the form of soldiers, policemen and firemen that watch out for us? There may be some that are not worthy of their titles but there are also…

bad preachers,

some terrible lying politicians 

and bad neighbors… 

Each one has to be judged on his or her own merit, right? 

Now for the rest of the story…

I stopped at the deli to have some Boar’s Head sandwich meat cut, it was taking forever because the normal lady was training a new girl to do it, going step by step over and over and I remarked out loud to no one in particular that it seemed to be taking forever when a man behind me standing a little too close to my comfort zone spoke to me. 

He said, “I am a former policeman, I have been shot three times and left for dead, once in the head and twice in the back.” I looked at his large brown eyes and then I noticed the scar across his shaved head. He continued, “When you have come that close to death so many times you are glad to just be standing in a line waiting for something, no matter what it is or how long it takes, because you are alive to be standing and waiting.” 

He didn’t say it in a manner that I took offensive it was just a fact. 

Then he held out his hand and introduced himself, “My name is Joe G____, (it was a beautiful Italian name) I am a native New Yorker that was always loud and boisterous, raised with seven brothers who are all policeman and fireman we were all like that. I am a single father and last year I was coaching my son’s baseball team and got thrown out of the game. My son threw off his hat and yelled at the umpire and told him he couldn’t do that to his dad! It was like somebody threw a switch and I realized I didn’t want to raise my son to yell at an authority, I just wanted peace.”

He leaned back against the cart and said, “Yes I am just happy to wait.” 

I was a little stunned and realized that his speech was a little halting and wondered if that was an effect of the gunshot to the head, again noticing the large erratic scar winding over his skull, I told him how much I appreciated his service to me as a citizen, wished him a blessed day and then stepped aside to give him my place in line.

I was reminded of how truly blessed I am to have guardian angels watching over me, whether it is a

policeman,

a fireman, 

men and women in the military or 

                                                one of the heavenly host.