'CROSSING PATHS' - A DIALOG

On a recent Sunday, while staffing Verso Fine Art's gallery in Hudson, I had a visit from Scott and Lynne of Doylestown, PA. An engaging couple visiting the upper Hudson Valley for the first time, we had a wide-ranging conversation about our current economic situation, life on Wall Street in the late 1960's and early '70s, and much more. Scott sent me an e-mail a day later. I hope you will find this dialog of some interest. HMH

My Reply

Thank you for your very thoughtful message, Scott. My best to you and Lynne, and I did enjoy talking with you. I didn’t want to be somber or downbeat, I just felt a sensitivity in the remarks you and your wife shared with me.

Interestingly, I forgot to share another anecdote with you. Last summer, a younger couple (late ‘30s) arfrived at my shop in Catskill (across the Hudson River). We began to talk. They were from Australia, and they had just returned to Montreal (150 miles north of Catskill) after having visited Cuba.

The purpose of their visit was for the wife to retrace her ancestral roots in a small hamlet called Kiskatom at the base of Hunter Mountain (northern Catskills) .. really nothing more than a collection of rural houses .. and she had found their burial site from almost 200 years ago. While she had grown up in Australia, she had known that her forebears were from Greene County, NY. (Her husband was of English extraction.)

They were nice people .. we talked more (and they invited me to visit them in Australia). To my complete amazement, when I asked where they lived, they told me that they had a 20,000 acre homestead in southern Australia, midway between Sydney and Melbourne, where they raised cattle and sheep.

The terrible fires that have been sweeping this area (in the news) caused me to think of them in recent days.

Our lives (you, Lynne, me .. and everyone else) are full of these unforeseen encounters.

Think about visiting again one day soon .. I promise to be a little more ‘upbeat’. Harold


Crossing Paths

Hi Harold,

My wife, Lynne and I visited with you in your store yesterday. You kindly gave us some directions, an endorsement of the Mexican restaurant across the street, and shared some background from your interesting life.

I too make a living in the financial industry – but not on Wall Street. I am a financial planner and run my practice out of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. My wife has been a kindergarten teacher these past 17 years and tells me that she has the most important job in the world…I believe her!

As we parted yesterday, your last story was a fascinating one about a family friend that came over to your house to say good-bye and then died the next day. As we all know life is very short, and it’s important to get out what you want to say to people before it’s too late. You also said that life is a mystery and we clearly are not totally in control. I believe God designed things that way so that we would learn to be obedient and dependent on him.

Here is what I wanted to be sure to say to you. We will pray for your continued health and for meaning in the balance of your life. Undoubtedly, you have pondered life after your stay on this earth, and I hope you have discovered as I have, that a trust and belief in God and his son, Jesus, can lead not only to abundant life, but life everlasting. All of our souls will experience an eternal life – the choice we make is whether that eternity will be in the presence of God or absent from him.

God bless you, Harold. I hope we get to cross paths again.