A00021 - The Call: Part Two

 For now, I will not provide much detail about the horror of confinement endured by The Boy nor about the wonder of the mystical journey undertaken by The Boy.  But I will say that by the time The Boy neared release from his confinement, The Call had grown more specific.  For the rest of his life, The Boy would need to serve and, as best he could, he would need to serve African American people. In order to facilitate such service, The Boy would ultimately need to break up with his White Girl Friend.  But that would have to wait until The Boy returned to Amherst ... that is, if The Boy was to return to Amherst.

The Boy was actually hospitalized from August 15, 1972, to November 7, 1972.  November 7, 1972, was a noted day in history.  It was the day the Richard Nixon was elected for a second term as President of the United States.  In the clouded mind of The Boy, it was a bizarre "coincidence" which would disturb him for many years to come.  

It was a quiet ride going from San Bernardino to the High Desert. After all, The Boy had been the "Golden Child".  As the "Golden Child" The Boy should not have been confined and, most certainly, should not be laying down on the back seat of the family car going over the Cajon Pass to an uncertain future.

The Boy did not know whether he would ever be what he once had been. And truthfully, he never was.  However, the God Who Was With The Boy did have a plan for The Boy.  Quite frankly, The Boy was never meant to preach the Christian Word of God.  The God Who Was With The Boy had other plans.  And those plans became evident, as soon as The Boy walked into the living room of his parents' pink house.  

Sitting next to the wall that divided the living room from the kitchen were two large boxes addressed to The Boy.  On a whim, in June of 1972, The Boy had entered a mail-in contest. The boxes indicated that "miraculously" The Boy had won the contest.  The Boy had won a 54-volume set of the Great Books of the Western World. 

The receipt of the Miraculous Gift seemed like a message to the The Boy that the God Who Was With The Boy wanted The Boy not only "To Preach" and "To Serve" but also "To Learn", and that The Boy would need to return to Amherst College to fulfill his Destiny and to please The God Who Was With The Boy. 

54 years later, The Boy finds that, now more than ever, he must endeavor to Spread the Word of God; that he still must Serve but now the service is not only for the African American community but rather for the World; and that The Boy still has much that he has yet to Learn.  And so, for the Boy, obedience to the Divine Impulse must continue, especially in light of all the wonders that said obedience has brought.