JANUARY 25th - Drink Some Milk

On this day in 1869, Pat Garrett left Louisiana after a bitter family-estate battle left him without a claim to the luxury of the family plantation. Not that Garrett had much of a choice in this case. When your family pretty much boots you out of the business, it’s sink or swim. But he could have gone East. Or to Mexico. Instead he went to Texas. And after Texas to Lincoln County, New Mexico where he became Sheriff and ran into a notorious nuisance named Billy the Kid. It’s weird to think about events after the fact as some chain reaction of destiny or chance. For instance, had Pat not gone West when he did, he may never have met and killed Billy the Kid. He may have never become famous. May not have been remembered at all. But he also may not have been shot to death by his business associate in 1908. Decisions are strange things. The dots that can be connected years down the road are pretty amazing. You may think that you are just running to the store because you forgot the milk, but actually you are setting off a succession of events that will culminate five years after that fateful trip to the grocery when you are finally in the right place at the right time to fulfill your lifelong dream of meeting Danny Bonaduce. Don’t ask me to connect the dots. But if you trace it back, you were only able to meet that angry little ginger because one day five years prior you forgot the milk. If you think about it for too long it can become paralyzing. If I do this, what will happen? Luckily for you, we can’t see how the decisions we make affect our future. Pat might not have wanted the headache of chasing after the Billy the Kid. Life gave it to him though. Whether that was preordained or because he forgot the milk one day is anyone’s guess. You’re never gonna know for sure in this life anyway. So you might as well make the best of it. But drink some milk every now again. Does the body good.

This Day has been Marked.