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Some time back I mentioned a young man that Jonathon and I met on tour. He asked, his family asked, and I ended up agreeing to sign his chest. It was a first. He had stood in line for hours to help his aunt, I believe, carry books. (The number of books I can sign per person is limited to save my arm. Many people bring family and friends to be book carriers.) When he got up to the head of the line he wanted something signed and didn’t have a book, so, we found something to sign.
I met his aunt, I’m almost a hundred percent certain that it was his aunt, anyway, his female relative, this last weekend at the RT Convention. She informed me that he is almost through basic and will ship out to Iraq soon. I am purposefully not mentioning his name or even his home town, because I do not want to have him ship to Iraq and be tagged as the guy who had Laurell K. Hamilton sign his chest. It lacks a certain dignity, and teasing can get a little much when time is slow, danger high, and boredom always present. But I just wanted to say here, be careful out there. Keep your head down, watch your back, watch everyone else’s, and come back safe. Michael guard and keep you. Michael who, you ask, why the Archangel Michael. He watches over soldiers and police, and all who risk their life to keep others safe. Thanks to the movie THE UNTOUCHABLES with Kevin Costner, there are those out there that believe that the patron saint of police work is the patron saint of lost causes, I believe they attribute this dubious honor to Saint Jude (if I take the time to go back through the movie to find it for certain this will never get posted.) First St. Jude is the patron saint to be invoked in desperate straits, not lost causes. Second of all police work, military work, is far from a lost cause. It is hard work, dangerous work, discouraging work, but that does not make it a lost cause. The whole saint sequence was great film making, but for real it’s St. Michael, and he doesn’t do lost causes.
He is the angel of the battle field. And since he’s mentioned in both the Koran and the Bible, he must be a very busy angel indeed.
But to the young man in question who’s about to ship out, I say this, bring back your chest in one piece and I’ll sign it again.