You reckon?

For most of my adult life I never traveled much. It was the nature of my job, being a small town undertaker. I couldn’t leave town… someone might die. Due the nature of my profession now - being a "widespread" undertaker and being a motivational speaker – I travel all the time these days. When most people travel they visit places like amusement parks or beaches or little mountain towns. I like those places too. But I find myself visiting the places where most people would never think of visiting.

For instance, I was in Palestine WV when Private Jessica Lynch returned to her hero’s welcome after her stint in the hospital after returning from Iraq. It took us a while but we even found her family’s home off a country road outside of Palestine. I have driven by the football field where Walton Payton played high school football in Columbia MS and I’ve visited the home of Jerry Clower in Liberty MS and I’ve driven in the driveway of Britney Spear’s home in Kentwood LA. I even stood at the grave of Buddy Holly in Lubbock TX. I’m not a better person or anything for seeing those places, but by golly, I’ve been there.

But I must have an unusual curiosity towards the “nuts” of the world as well. I have pulled up in front of the Luby’s Restaurant in Killeen TX, where a madman “nut” drove through the window and gunned down 24 people. I have driven behind the Sav-A-Lot store in Murphy, NC and saw the dumpster where the Centennial Bomber “nut”, Eric Rudolph, was arrested by a rookie policeman as the “nut” scavenged in the trash. I even walked the grounds of the Branch Davidian Compound outside of Waco TX and saw the rubble of a building where 86 people lost their lives because of the David Koresh “nut”. And I actually pulled in the rest stop off I-70 outside of Hagerstown MD where the DC Sniper "nuts" (Malvo and Muhammad) were arrested while sleeping in their 1990 Chevy Caprice after killing God knows how many people.

I’ve seen the big stuff too. I have visited the Oklahoma City Memorial and had a hard time swallowing realizing that 168 people were killed because of the David McVeigh “nut”. And I almost lost my breath when I stood in New York City at the site of where the Twin Towers once stood, trying to grasp the fact that some 2600 innocent people lost their lives because of the terrorist “nuts” that invaded our country.

Some would probably call ME a nut for visiting such places. But there must be different kinds of nuts in the world. . Maybe when you view life from a hearse you think about such things. You reckon?