It was 52 years ago, this date. As I was on my way to class at New York University a report came over a car radio near the main classroom building. President John F. Kennedy had been shot and was being rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. No further news at that time. I was only 17 years old, a freshman in college, and not yet eligible to vote. I had attended a Kennedy rally in Schenectady, New York when he was running for President in 1960 and was close enough to him at that time that I felt like I knew him personally.
But that Friday in 1963, I felt like I was reading a novel and not experiencing a piece of history which would change many things in our country and alter my ideas of what was important and where I might end up after college. The events of the next few days, the capture and then death of Lee Harvey Oswald, the investigations, speculation, suspicions, the Warren Commission Report, conspiracy theories, documentaries and Hollywood renditions of the events all fueled a growing distrust and uncertainty. Were we being told the truth about the events of that day and were other events open to question as well? The uncertainty seems to go on even to this day.
That day, so many years ago left a lasting impression on me. Many history-making events have occurred since then, far too numerous to list here, but something changed on that Friday afternoon and I still remember the empty feeling, the fear, the loneliness and the reality of a loss of innocence and the security I had felt when I left home to attend college in the Big City. I gave a little thought to this date in history as I looked at the calendar a few days ago, not thinking it would be a blog topic, but it grabbed me as I wrote the date on the subject line just now.
Life holds no certainties for us, no guarantees of success, no promise beyond the present moment. God knows, but He doesn't put it down in writing for us other than the Words of Scripture and in that we do have certainty, guarantees and promises to rest on. And for this, I gratefully say.......Thank You, Lord.
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