Heaven help me.
I’m sitting in Starbucks having a coffee and trying to edit a story when a lady and a gentleman about my age walk in and sit at the table behind me without purchasing anything. A few minutes later a young man walks in and is greeted by the pair. I try not to listen, but the gentleman’s voice carries, probably even more than my own.
Lots of leading yet pointless questions about his work and the “pressures of the Season.”
Then the side of the conversation that I can clearly hear leads me to understand that the young man is engaged to the couple’s daughter. My heart goes out to the young guy because he’s getting the treatment. “This is what I expect for my daughter, and you will understand when you have children…”
I thought I had them fairly well tuned out when I heard this: “…and do you two go to church on Sunday? …she’s strayed away from this and going to church on Sunday is what our family is based on. It is your job to bring her back to salvation. When you marry her she is your responsibility and her salvation is at stake.”
And Stuart wept.
Stuart Dummit 