Powers in the Air

It was a majestic and colorful fall day.  Leaves blushing with red, yellow, and orange, floated softly in the gentle, cool breeze.  Outside the little country church on this Sunday morning, sat Rex, a faithful old Golden Retriever, waiting patiently for his owner to emerge out the closed church doors.  Joyful song and the clapping of hands were  streaming through the air, as the closing hymn was being sung.  Rex seemed to know that it would not be long now; he rose to his feet and wagged his tail with anticipation, eyes beaded on the still-closed doors.  This was an event he repeated every Sunday faithfully.  He would walk to the church with his owner, Dixon, an athletic type man with beautiful thick prematurely grey hair, that flowed long like a horse’s well-groomed mane.   Dixon was a confirmed bachelor, after a too early a marriage at the tender age of 20.  He would say, “once a flame burns you, only a fool  would jump back into the fire; you haven’t learned anything if you’re stupid enough to repeat the same mistake over again !”