After the MRI was over, I continued to reflect on the presence I had felt joining me and enabling me to get through the procedure.  One question that was especially prominent in my mind was a variant of something I remembered from my childhood.  I had heard it near the end of every episode of the old TV western, The Lone Ranger:

"Who was that masked man?"

The more I thought about it, the more similarity I began to see between John McCain’s actions in the North Vietnamese prison and the sense of support I had suddenly felt when I was in the MRI machine. McCain did more in that prison than prove what a tough guy he was.  By his presence and positive example, he was able to give hope and the ability to carry on, one day at a time, to all the other guys trapped in the hellhole with him.

What, then, would it be reasonable to conclude from my time in the MRI machine?

Or to put it another way, why would I not believe that…

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  To put this experience in its proper context, as well as the others I’ve described to you, I’ll need to fill you in on some other possibilities that I’ve come to consider over the years.