And The Point Is... by Anne Porter

I'm a flipper. I mean I constantly peruse stations on the radio. I'll listen very briefly, understandably, to about 12 channels during the course of one round on the dial.

Most of the time, I discover at least two songs that appeal to me, but one more factor also must be considered. That would be the mood I happen have at that particular time.

Tuesday, I was not in a wonderful mood because the bank "misplaced" a certificate of deposit that I wanted to cash.

Needless to say, I thought about many ways to torture, maim, etc. whoever was responsible for losing my money.

During one of my flips, I heard a bit of a song that intrigued me.

The lyrics went something like this.

A woman from St. Louis was stuck by the side of the road because one of her tires had gone flat.

(So she didn't know how to change a tire . . . neither do I or a few other people I know. The St. Louis touch provided an added bonus as well. In fact last time my tire went flat I walked up to a group of guys playing basketball and had them change my tire. So at this point, I can completely relate to this woman's experience.)

The man who stopped was named Joe. The lady tried to pay him. but he said:

(Here's where the chorus begins.)

"You don't owe me a thing, but if you really want to pay me back, don't break the chain of love."

The woman from St. Louis goes on her merry way and stops at a diner where her waitress is about 8 months pregnant and has the sweetest smile. It also continues with the disclaimer that the woman from St. Louis didn't know her story, but nonetheless she felt obligated to help.

(I wait tables at my other job and let me say it's difficult enough without carrying the equivalent of a bowling ball in the stomach.)

The St. Louis woman paid the waitress with a hundred dollar bill and left before she could give her back her change (That's a nice tip, indeed).

On a napkin, the woman wrote this.

You don't owe me a thing, but if you really want to pay me back, don't break the chain of love.

Later that night the waitress was laying in bed and she whispered to her husband who just happened to be Joe, the man who changed the woman's tire. She said, "I love you, Joe" and something else to the effect that they would be all right.

Ok, so this song is somewhat mushy, but it really mended my mood.

I, of course, attempted to find who sings this song so that when I wrote this column I did not seem like a complete idiot so I called a couple of country stations.

Clay Walker performs this record and it's named "The Chain of Love."

That is not the point though.

I do not really care what the song is called. It could be "Joe's Paper Shack Made of Popsicle Sticks." The message behind the song remains the most important item about the song and that same idea brings everyone together and makes us equal.