My life had been turned upside down. I was no longer a
husband. Although I had my son a large majority of the time I was really only a
part-time father. I had been given a do-over and was effectively back to where
I was when I left the Navy. Being socially inept, especially when it came to
talking to people of the opposite sex, I turned to the internet to try to find
a relationship.
If the internet had been around when Dante had written the Divine Comedy I have no doubt that he
would have included a tenth circle of Hell just for internet dating. The eleventh would have been reserved for
Face Book but that’s another post. I
have heard that there are millions of success stories when it comes to internet
dating, including mine, but for every one that goes right there has to be a
hundred or more that end in tragedy or worse.
I had nothing but the best intentions in the beginning. I was a nice guy and had a lot to offer the
right woman. That is when I learned that nice guys don’t finish last as I always
had heard the saying go. Nice guys are devoured by ravenous succubae that lurk
behind every virtual rock and tree. I was no exception and was gobbled up and
spat out over and over again.
I bounced between relationships with great moral ambiguity. My
once uncompromising principles were checked at the door. I found myself engaged
in behavior that I abhorred just years before and hurt a few good people along
the way. When I looked in the mirror I didn’t recognize the person looking back.
I didn’t like what I saw.
Now I said that God was with me every step of the way. I
would like to think that he protected me from the really big mistakes and the
things that could not be undone. He guided me through the bad so that I may
recognize the good. There was a girl, recently divorced, also wondering in the
desert. An unbaptized mother of two unbaptized children. When the time was
right our paths crossed.
Two years later she took my name in a quaint country chapel.
In the hours leading up to the wedding severe thunderstorms battered the area and
tornadoes were sighted both north and south. Somewhere someone was not very pleased that we
wed but in heaven there was joy. God smiled down upon us that day.
I was picked up, dusted off and led back to the road to be
given another chance. God was far from being done.
