“If Thy Heart Be As My Heart…”

The severe storms and tornado warnings yesterday morning delayed our departure from Columbus, TX.  The tornado threat quickly passed us by, moving on toward Houston with a fury.  The weather front also brought cooler temperatures and strong winds as we drove on across this B—I—G  State of Texas.  Even though we were traveling at 75 mph all day long we ended up in Texas!  We stopped for the night in Fort Stockton, about 260 miles east of El Paso. Fort Stockton was established around 1867 to provide protection for the pioneers of the western expansion.  This protection was provided by the Buffalo Soldiers.  Do you know their story? 

Since it was Valentine’s Day we decided to forego my cooking and have a “down-home” Texas-style dinner in the little cafe right here in the RV Park.  I think we might enjoy breakfast there this morning as well, before we get on the road again.

Wherever we go, we find “Alabama” people (you may remember that I wrote of the people of Alabama as exceptionally hospitable and friendly).  All along our gypsy way we are encountering hospitable and friendly people—in Louisiana,  Texas—everywhere.  America may be divided politically, but politics is not all of life, and our politics do not prevent friendliness.  Texas is a so-called “Red State,” and I’m sure the friendly people I encountered last night think quite differently politically than I do.   This thought got me to thinking this morning of John Wesley’s famous sermon, “The Catholic (Universal) Spirit,” wherein he writes that we may not all be of the same opinion, but we can be united together (whatever our differences) in our hearts.  “If thy heart be as my heart, then give me thy hand.”  We all have a “human” heart—a heart meant for hospitality, friendliness and love.  It is this “human heart” I am discovering again and  again as we travel along through this “already” great and “getting” greater land and people called America.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cann “ ot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” (Mark Twain)