Rainy Day and her Convictions

One of Rainy Day's most favoritest movies in the whole wide world, is the 1967 moie, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? If you're not familiar with the movie, Rainy Day gives it 10 stars out of five, you need to become familiar with it. The story centers around the Drayton family, a white upper middle class liberal, progressive family, and their blonde daughter, Joey, who comes home with her fiancé, Dr. John Prentice (Sidney Poitier) and the soul searching all parties concerned must face. One of the best lines is between the Monsignor (Cecil Kellaway) and Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) when the Monsignor laughs and says something to the effect of, "It isn't every day I get to see a man come face to face with his convictions."

And it isn't every day when any one gets to come face to face with his or her convictions, but Rainy Day did, not too long ago.

A Song Bird Singing of Convictions

One of Rainy Day's long held convictions is that those who are sent to prison for a crime should be rehabilitated, and when released, given the benefit of the doubt. She think it works, at least when the prisoner wants it to, and gets some support on the outside. For those of you fortunate enough to live in the Pacific Northwest, a case in point is Dave and his Killer Bread. A four-time loser for drug misuse, he now puts out the bestest bread money can by, Dave's Killer Bread. Click here for his story. Get to the nearest grocery store for the bread. (BTW, Dave gave permission to use this paragraph and the link.;-)

And so, when Rainy Day decided to try one of the online dating sites, and met the most gorgeous hunk of old world manhood, Drago (not his real name), she was swept off her feet. Drago came from the old Yugoslavia as a teenager, but he kept that old world charm, the deep, European voice, and those old world manners. Rainy Day really thought she had met her man. And then, one day, as Drago and Rainy Day talked on the phone, he said a couple of things that didn't sound quite right. Nothing big, nothing serious, but just not 'right.' Rainy Day remembers the incidents he talked about, and she remembered them very differently than Drago did.

That night, Rainy Day couldn't sleep, so she went online and Googled Drago. Several pages came up and they weren't good. Drago had not only done prison time, but he did his time in a Federal Penitentiary for illegally selling guns. Rainy Day ran smack dab into one of her convictions. Owwweeeee!!! Did that ever hurt! (Rainy Day also loves to use exclamation points, can you tell?)

It took a couple of days before she talked to Drago to get his side of the story. Perhaps, she hoped, spending two years in a cell contemplating the error of his ways, was enough. Perhaps, like Dave above, something good came out of that time. Perhaps he was sorry for what he did (5 of the guns he illegally sold ended up being used in the commission of felonies – including the fatal shooting of a police officer. One of the guns ended up in a boy's backpack and taken to Junior High School. No one was hurt.). So, Rainy Day called Drago and held her breath hoping for the right answer. Rainy Day turned very blue.

His only remorse seemed to be that he was caught. He insisted he only exercised his Second Amendment Rights. Rainy Day, having served in the military to defend that Constitution and its Amendments had a different idea. Amendment II to the US Constitution reads: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Nowhere does it say one can buy and sell weapons without proper and legal paper work.

Blooming Where Planted

Drago and Rainy Day talked, and the more they talked, the more proud he seemed for the time he spent in prison, and the sadder Rainy Day became. Had he admitted his wrongdoing, had he shown true remorse, they might be together today; however, Rainy Day, having faced her conviction, had no choice but to say Goodbye. For, one of her convictions is to not become willingly and knowingly involved in illegal activities, or with men who commit them.

In the meantime, Rainy Day assures me, she won't date anyone without checking him on Google. She is now dating a gentleman she'll call George. The 'worst' thing Rainy Day could find about George is he used to run marathons in his younger days;-)

Rainy Day says convictions are good things to have. They help her as she wanders down life's path, but sometimes, they are hard when bumped into.

What are some of your convictions? Have you ever bumped into any?