Of class reunions and beauty pageants.

Last week I was lucky enough to travel back in time to gather with 35 people who all graduated high school 27 years ago. Reunions are always so interesting because we realize some 17 year old was actually in charge of one of the most important times of our lives. That’s when most of us head straight to the bar and order a stiff one. As the fog of life sweeps us onto the treadmill of kids, pets, lovers, spouses and experiences.....we sometimes pause to look back at the innocent and sweet years that shaped us before we stepped into reality. Central Illinois has some of the blackest top-soil you'll ever see or smell. It is powerful and reeks of life and death and how the two are intertwined. My mind loves the orderly pattern of the rows of crops as opposed to the palm trees and lack of order I find where I live now in Hawaii. A reunion. But this wasn't just any reunion or "get together".....it was a beauty pageant. And although this may sound strange, I swear to you it was true. And the winner was a girl whom I remember by her laugh and smile. She always wore that smile in school and after that June night in 1982, I never saw her again. I went one way and really never thought of her again until a few short months ago. Now I always prided myself on two things: knowing beautiful women and having an opinion on just about everything. I was born to be the kind of judge Simon Cowell has made a fortune being. Provide me with a choice and I'll tell you why one is better than the other. I don’t get wishy-washy, I give it the straight poop. No one knew there was a beauty pageant that cool eve in the prairie state, but afterwards as I drove home late that night to my mother's home....I saw that there was and I knew who won. She has that same smile and laugh. She has a husband and beautiful children. There she was, Miss America! And she was clearly the winner. By the way, she also has no hair now. The winner that night is battling cancer. Somehow I had never been touched by cancer either in my own life or anyone around me. I was that guy who found the pink ribbons somewhat annoying as I really didn't know their meaning. I do now. The Queen of the Class of 1982 has made me very aware of it and of life. I have done a lot of soul-searching in the last seven days and I have read up on breast cancer and now I have a pink ribbon too. I stand ashamed of my earlier thoughts but am so very glad I now know the power of smiles and know that a 45 year old friend with no hair won my heart and a beauty pageant I never knew I would be judging. Thank you for your strength, your smile, your laugh and your example. Others from that special evening may face our own beauty pageant someday and I pray we battle it as you have and come out the winner. Keep smilin' Terri.