 |
| Captain Patrick Ferguson |
On September 11
th, Scotsman
Captain Patrick Ferguson, a marksman clad in green and considered the finest
shot in the British army aimed his rifle at an enemy officer.
Aware of the marksmen the officer turned his
horse and cantered away with only one backwards glance. Because the enemy officer
had taken an unoffending posture and was leaving the scene the Scotsman chose
not to fire. Captain Ferguson could have killed the officer but for whatever reason,
the distaste of shooting a man in the back or the non-confrontational manner of
the encounter, he let the man ride. It was 1777, and the officer riding into history
was General George Washington.
Because my husband loves anything
to do with the revolutionary war we were watching the history channel recently
and the incident I just outlined was a thirty-second enlightenment regarding
the profound actions of one soldier letting another soldier live. What blew me
away was how the action, or better said, how the inaction of Ferguson, certainly
changed the history of the world. (That it was on 9/11 does not escape me either.)
I won’t even go into the ‘Sliding-Door’
ramifications of the incident, suffice to say we would be living in a very
different world if Washington had died in 1777. It got me to thinking of the ‘one-and-onlys’
who have altered our humble civilization. I’m not thinking of the divine ‘one
and onlys’ like Jesus, Buddha, Mohamed or the rest, I’m thinking of the you and
me ‘one-and-onlys’ chosen by providence
to make a difference. Right now the only
other I can think of besides the fictional George Bailey is the
very real Rosa Parks. Ponder beyond the bus ride, expand your thinking to the
entire civil rights movement, its impact on our country spilling over to other
nations, the fall of apartheid, a global quest for individual freedom, the wall
coming down, the fall of the USSR then you get what I mean. Did Rosa do all
that, of course not and oh hell yes she did.
Don’t tell me your existence does
not influence the world, don’t tell me you are not a ‘one-and-only’ because if 12
year old Amalia’s parents had not forbidden her to receive letters from her
young friend Jorge there would be no Pope Francis today.
How have you, or will you, change
the world?
For the past year I have been
writing the weekly column Enough Said
for the Shoreline Times in Connecticut.
I have enjoyed this writing-gig and as the year went on and I started to build
a small but loyal fan base I began billing myself as a minnow in a mud
puddle. I like the idea of being a
little fish in a little pond, I’m comfortable here, it feels right. 
