Here is the beginning of the story... as it is flowing onto paper. I know I will rewrite it and tighten it up, but I am very much in a Mudcat state of mind tonight, so I wanted to share this, rough though it may be.


Cane and Able

        The cane said "Buy me!" Or more accurately it enticed me over to the table and said, "Why don't you put in a nice, high bid on me?" The cane was lying there on one of the long tables that had been set up for the auction, surrounded by pieces of pottery, books and other odds and ends. I certainly wasn't looking for a cane. Even though I'm 75, the Lord has blessed me with strong legs. Why would an able-bodied man want a cane? What initially drew me to it was that I knew Judy Goddard, the person who had created it. Judy hand decorates wooden canes with Christian scriptures and writings. I'd never seen one of the canes, and I was drawn to it the minute I spotted it. When I picked it up, I noticed that it was a puzzle cane, and there was a trick to reading the quotation. There were no secret levers or panels to twist. It was more a matter of how you read it. Scripture is like that. Sometimes the meaning is not revealed with a casual glance. I was happy to see the quotation she used, because it is one of my favorites:

"Lord make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love                               St. Francis of Assisi

God knows there is too much hatred in the world these days, and never enough love.

When I looked at the sheet where you could write down your bid, I was relieved to see that no one had placed a bid yet. It was early in the first day, so I didn't think it would go unclaimed until the final closing of bids the next day, so I gently placed the cane back on the table. I figured there'd be plenty of time to place my bid. Besides, I wasn't sure why I wanted to get the cane. I didn't know anyone I could give it to, and I didn't see any need for it myself in the foreseeable future. As the day wore on, my wife and I were preoccupied, enjoying the music. We were at our first Getaway, a folk festival presented by the Greater Washington Folksong Society. That afternoon we dropped by the auction tables again and I noticed that a friend had placed a small bid on the cane. As I turned it slowly in my hand, admiring the craftsmanship and the quotation, I had conflicting thoughts. My friend uses a cane, and it seemed like a cruel trick to outbid her when at least for the time being, I had no use for it. Once again, I placed the cane gently on the table and walked away. It wasn't until that night when I was lying in bed that the Lord talked to me about the cane.

Jerry