A 'one-and-only'

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?