On a field trip to Barnes and Nobles Sunday night with my cute little bride, I did two things that were rather unforgettable.

First, I had a pumpkin spice frappucino. Don’t make the same mistake. As the saying goes, friends don’t let friends drink pumpkin spice frappucinos. A dramatic waste of $2.39 (I am SO glad I only got a tall and not a venti!), the supposed shot of espresso that was hidden somewhere in the drink was indeed well hidden.

Second, I picked up the recent copy of Biblical Archaeology Review. Granted, that may not rank up there with Sports Illustrated or Newsweek in most folks’ mind, but I actually had a rather dramatic flashback to days of yore when I was but a young grad student with a head full of mush and lived and ate B.A.R. day and night.

I actually miss that stuff. There was a cover article on the archeological dig of parts of Hezekiah’s tunnel underneath Jerusalem. For a fellow with 90 graduate hours in Old Testament and an intense interest in biblical archeology, that was the equivalent of a Jessica Alba centerfold (well, kind of).

My wife didn’t get it.

Though the trappings of the environment that had led me into the study of things of the past are thankfully long gone, the familiarity of it beckoned with a surprising intensity.

And THAT got me to thinking.

In the same way King Hezekiah built the water tunnel in anticipation of a threatened siege of the city by the Assyrian monarch Sennacherib, perhaps my youthful journey through the land of faithless tradition was a preparation for things to come. Now, with the advantage of hindsight, I can see the real value of the preparation and longingly wish I could return and do a better job of preparation for what is now the future.

And, I think I’m actually a nerd. [sigh]