You Should Not Call In Your Falcons Before The Hunt Is Done!

Why this line from King Arthur when he was delivering the death blow to Mordred in the story “What If Iron Man Had Been Trapped In King Arthur's Time?” occurred to me Sunday morning before church as a cool title today just now eludes me. (Incidentally, the issue that's from is Marvel Comics' What If? #33, cover dated June 1982, and the divergence resulted from Iron Man and Doctor Doom working together to return from the sixth to the then-present day twentieth century, only to have Doom trick Iron Man and return by himself. But the story doesn't end too bad for Tony Stark, Iron Man's alter ego – he becomes a knight of Camelot and succeeds Arthur as king upon his death – “Long Live The King! Long Live King Anthony of Britain!” And according to the Watcher's byline, under King Anthony of Camelot Britain came to rule half the world.) Thus does a man out of time forge a destiny all his own.

I'm not a big believer in destiny myself; I'm not even sure what that is. I know that if the future were written, not in the broad strokes of Bible prophecy but rather my own life were mapped out in all its minutiae, I wouldn't bother getting up in the morning any more. And despite my being a “morning person” sometimes I DO NOT want to get up for too much is facing me down! But this morning I was just in time to wake up – in fact, I had just finished a dream scenario where I was viewing a situation I had watched from another character's perspective … and that's about all I remember of it. Darn it. But this weekend, the Monday of [Christianity's] Holy Week, is just getting started! And by nine am we were all well on our way!

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, when at Bethany Lutheran our church choir of whom Martha is a member sang our annual cantata, the one commemorating Holy Week – from Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem to His death on the cross – that's usually a full house. And after our worship service we went downstairs and our church youth group [LYO] had made a brunch of sausage biscuit and fruit cocktail and beverages, also our local Panera Bread had donated its day old pastries and breads and cookies for a freewill offering. With all the restaurants coming into our area right now, most of this excess they can't sell instead of being thrown out is being donated to local churches and homeless shelters – and that's a very good thing!

My wife's weekend was mostly taken up with her league's state bowling tournament, held right here in Minot! (Next year's is in Grand Forks, three and a half hours away.) So Saturday morning all of us got to go to church for Breakfast with the Boys' biennual – meaning it's held twice a year, biannual would be every two years; they are oft confused – breakfast with our wives. And in my case, with our children too; in fact, we had to run a few errands after scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit, and beverages for Martha had to run up to practice handbells. We got what we needed and I brought Sarah and Jeffrey to a classmate's birthday party at Planet Pizza. THEN I had some time, which I used to get a haircut and just chill before picking them up and later meeting Martha at home since bowling was local.

Since Martha went with her bowling league to Montana Mike's, I reciprocated by offering to take the kids to our local Perkins, where on Saturdays per paying adult one kid eats free. And since it was just me with them, I went for a meal I usually don't because my loving Martha rolls her eyes when I order this – a sampler platter of all the appetizers! OH, it's a wicked indulgence I have so missed … we got home with some cookies for the kids, a muffin for Martha and I, and played Skip-Bo before bed. Then came Sunday morning worship, and that afternoon while at Main Street Books Jeffrey and I participated in a Scrabble tournament … and for his first time, he did really well! With some help from his sister Sarah and our co-player Lisa and me, of course – but really, it was fantastic to watch them have more fun that I expected to have, or them to have, without an iPad!

Thus does a man out of time forge a destiny all his own.

David