Today we will hear from a man who is very special to the Catch Ministry. He was the founder of the Catch and our first Chairman of the Board, Peter Herschend. It’s not a particularly special day in his life, except that he is our guest on our BlogTalkRadio show tonight, which makes it a very special day for us. This is a chance to introduce you to an influential man who many of you may know little about.
And his smile will light a candle
That will burn in your heart.
This will be my final journaling from the road with Chandler. It has been a monumental journey with incredible encounters along the way, but yesterday’s three-hour meeting with Lambert Dolphin was most enlightening. In Lambert’s own words, “[Chandler] and I seem to have been given a high-bandwidth two-way channel yesterday. I have much to learn from him I know.” I merely sat back and watched. It was as if, at 21, Chandler finally found someone who understands him. Because of his learning disability, Chandler sometimes has trouble completing his sentences. With Lambert, this wasn’t an issue. He was clearly completing all of Chandler’s sentences in his mind.
Today, we leave the town of Red Bluff, California and travel west for what our GPS says is roughly three and a half hours on California Highway 36, a little-known piece of the state highway system that passes through the bustling metropolises of Beegum, Platina, Forest Glen, Mad River, Bridgeville, Dinsmore, Carlotta, Hydesville, and Alton where it joins Highway 101. If you straightened this road out, you could probably travel it in half the time, but I guarantee there will never be a straight road through this mountainous country. Chandler and I can’t wait. We love routes like this.
Chandler has been on a vegan diet for over two years now. It makes cooking at home and take out, as well as eating on a trip such as we are on right now, a real challenge. We either have to find restaurants that have some vegan options so we can both order what we want, or, what he really gets excited about, are totally vegan restaurants, in which case, I eat vegan too. And I must say, they are getting incredibly sophisticated about plant-based foods these days.
Chandler is a leader. He may not have all the tools, or know how to use them, but that doesn’t matter. He leads anyway by sheer will. I am also constantly surprised by how much he knows. He will enter into conversations on various topics and engage with understanding to where I will have to ask him later to bring me up to speed on the discussion. I realize I’ve made excuses for him because of his learning disability that he hasn’t made for himself. I’ve got to get on board with this kid; I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
I can hear Willie Nelson’s stringy voice as we get in the car and head north after only a day’s respite between road trips. “On the road again.” This time I’m with Chandler and we are headed to Sacramento and other destinations west as we seek out a path for his future. Our primary first stop will be an academy in Sacramento that prepares you for a career as a fish and wildlife game warden. And on the way back we will visit various colleges that offer the type of classes he will need to enter this program.
There was a wonderful, three-tissue story in the Times Sports section yesterday about a 17-year-old senior football player at Loyola High School in Los Angeles named Josh Morales. A week before Christmas, Josh and both his parents all tested positive for COVID-19. His parents were hit the hardest and Josh insisted, in spite of his own compromised health, that he was the least sick and could take care of them, which he did by washing their clothes and bed linens, cooking meals and massaging their backs and foreheads. His father was the worst and ended up in the hospital for 38 days. Twice, the doctors thought they were going to lose him. Josh’s mother came within one day of going into the hospital as well, right before she turned a corner on the disease. Josh continued undaunted, trying to keep up with his classes in school and agility training for football while he selflessly continued taking care of his parents.
I am in heaven. You’ve heard of stories of people visiting heaven briefly and coming back. Lambert Dolphin has one of those stories. This is better. I’m in heaven right now. I am writing this from heaven.
Contrary to popular opinion, heaven is not up there somewhere in the clouds; heaven is in Arizona, in a certain daytime cafe, where they are seating you indoors — first time for me in over a year — and serving the best breakfast in the world along with your own thermal pot of the best coffee. They’ll never get rid of me this morning. I’m expecting Larry Norman to show up any minute.
By the time you read this, I will be headed east on Interstate 10 towards Phoenix, Arizona, and Tempe Diablo Stadium for the first Los Angeles Angels spring training game I have attended in two years. Most of you already know I have a habit of doing this every year, except that last year this thing happened that if it didn’t take your life, it altered it to where it was hardly recognizable anymore as your life. The three games I was supposed to attend last season at this time were canceled two days prior to my departure. So they kindly reissued my tickets for this year and gave me the option of choosing my seats before the tickets went on sale to the public.
With the country split in half and everyone getting meaner, what an opportunity for grace turned outward! We are offering the antithesis to everything brewing in society. Wherever you are, from the mail room to the executive offices — from a wheelchair to a lawn chair — you are in a position to make a difference. Whenever you engage with anybody, from neighbors, to clerks, to delivery drivers, you have an opportunity to stand out simply because of what has happened to you.
John Fischer The Catch 