Another way to look at it is, “If you find a path in which there are no forks, you will get where you planned to go too quickly and miss something.”

Last week an opportunity to serve a client’s interests working with his commercial real property led me to Waynesboro, then Leakesville, Mississippi. There is no interstate highway between the two, only state highways and county roads. Actually, the one main road follows the beautiful Chickasawhay River as it meanders South toward its confluence with the Leaf to become the Pascagoula River.

William Faulkner mentions often the “Big Woods” in his streams of word pictures about North Mississippi. The main road I took to Leakesville has more “Big Woods” along either side than either Yoknapatawpha or Bolivar County could ever boast, imaginary or otherwise.

Here’s where the amended quote above comes in. The road had a fork, and as I passed, I peeked down the way and saw a restaurant sign on the side of a small building. It was a squat little building with faded wood siding, a store front just visible close to the road. After I slowed, turned around and drove down to it, I found the eatery long closed and abandoned. With no place to turn around, I drove down the road to see the river bridge. No question now, I had to go see it up close, without traffic screaming by. When I got near, I lost all interest in the River, which I was not dressed to go touch anyway, since there on the road side was a sign beneath a catalpa tree announcing that here was an enterprise. A business was there, most likely not booming, but one that came from the past when people were more in touch with what they ate. From in front of a wood frame home behind a picket fence, a sign proclaimed the presence of not only food to eat, but a means of acquiring the same from Big Wood’s bounty. Here is what I saw.

All said and done, I found a path with a fork. Eventually, I got where I had planned to go, and also found something else; something that I shall not forget. Something about which I take pride, my community of South Mississippi is a wonderful place to live, so rich. Down every fork is icing rich as fresh butter folded with confectioner’s sugar.