The word meander and the word random are interesting words, and they came vividly to life today. Meander implies unplanned and undirected movement--for some people it characterizes their entire lives, while for others it comes in certain times of leisure or transition. Random is the unanticipated which intrudes into life at any turn. Sometimes, in God's hand, these two words come together and the result is a spiritual serendipity.

Nancy and I are finding ourselves free for the moment, since there is plenty of time to leisurely travel to Washington DC for our next deadline. So today we decided to meander. A newspaper article in the morning paper described several unusual destinations in northern Kansas, and we set out to try them. The first was the geographical center of the continental United States--described as that place where if a pin were placed underneath it,it would balance. The second was the site of the world's largest ball of twine--something we could not pass up and still seem honorable to Kathy Gow.

So off we went--stopping at the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial And Educational Foundation Center on the way. At least this would give us something of literary worth to talk about, and make the planned day somewhat meritorious.

The center of the US was not particularly well marked, but we reversed ourselves enough to find it. There was a flag, a plaque, and a little chapel--all fine but not hugely impressive for a place of such monumental significance.

The Geographic Center of the United States


Then on to the ball of twine in Cawker City. Begun in 1953 using sisal twine which then wrapped hay bales. it is now over 7,900,000 feet long and weighs over 18,000 pounds. Every day it is visited, and the local feed store now donates a supply of sisal twine (now replaced in the fields by nylon) to have on hand for tourists to add to the ball. You can only imagine the anticipation with which we approached this monument to Americana.

To make a long story short, when we arrived I was disappointed to find the object of our trek somewhat obscured by several people, lights and other electrical equipment. What we discovered was that these people were a film crew on a pilgrimage around the United States making a documentary on the topic: True Love In America. The genesis of the trip was a personal question the director was asking about whether or not he should marry his girlfriend of 2 1/2 years. The goal was to have that question addressed in some of the most beautiful and some of the most quirky places in the country, and in the process make something in a movie form which could be commercially sold. Needless to say, it was not long before Nancy and I had engaged the film crew in so much dialogue that they asked if they could interview us on film. We said yes, went to lunch, and on coming back all was ready and the cameras rolled. The planned 5 minute interview turned into a 30 minute one, and ended with the director saying that my statement, "The question for you is not why you should marry her but why you should not--i.e. what is keeping you from doing it", was going to give him nightmares.

The World's Largest Ball of Twine, Cawker City, Kansas

Today meandering and random took on new meaning to me, as Nancy and I went from a museum dedicated to one of the great American writers to a filmed interview on love and marriage in front of the largest ball of twine in the world. I guess Solomon was right, There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. Or, I could slightly modify what Nancy has always said, Commit each day to the Lord and feed whoever walks through the door, to Commit each day to the Lord and talk to whomever you might find in front of a large ball of twine...