PFP - The Dream Behind The Dream

I am old enough now . . . not to be a threat to waitresses. When I ask them questions they don't think I'm trying to find love. One that inspires great next level conversation is, What is your dream? Most who serve you in a restaurant are on their way to somewhere else. Their dreams are bigger than Atlanta Bread or M's Asian Grill. Remember, everybody, even the quiet ones, have something they want to talk about.

Rick Dockery (Playing for Pizza) thought his dream was to make it big in professional football. His real search (Dream Behind The Dream) was meaningful relationships, significance, and a place to belong. He had an opportunity to bolt from Parma and his Panther team mid-season. A $400,000 contract with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL was his road closer to his apparent dream. A decent raise from the $36,000 he would make with the Parma Panthers awaited him up north. He said no.

My dream was to play professional baseball, specifically for the Cincinnati Reds. My other dream was to preach before large crowds. Neither happened, although my mother still thinks the scouts were stupid when they refused to offer me a contract. Thanks mom. The dream behind the dream was the same as Rick's though: meaningful relationships, significance, and a place to belong. God has given me all three . . . beyond what I could ask or think (Eph. 3:20). He knew all along what I really wanted.

Yesterday provided great conversations from Greenville to Columbia, Maryland to Tennessee, Spartanburg to Anderson . . . On the road today with my sister Debbie, my brother-in-law, Randy and my cell phone to Ocala, FLA. My Uncle Tom died last Saturday. My Aunt MaryAnn is all that and a bag of chips to my sister and me. She is pretty blue right now. I don't blame her. We are going to laugh, talk about old times and Uncle Tom. Unresolved stuff there. Like jazz music. Like Playing for Pizza.