Fix Your Hat!
Today on the train, there was a bunch of little kids on a camp outing or something. Well, there was this little boy who kept hitting all the other little boys in the balls and running around. Two female staff members kept telling him to calm down, sit down, stop hitting...and he would stop for two seconds, then he would start right back up.
Then fate intervened, as the little boy was playing on the train he tripped onto the male staffer, who was not playing with the little boy:
"Hey, stand over there and hold on the pole," he says without yelling but yet with intensity in his voice.
The little boy stands by the pole.
"He's been acting bad the whole time," says a little snitch
"Oh, well I will tell you what's about to happen, everyone is about to go on the trip but you - you and me will go right back to the center"
Silence from the boy - his little head bows, holding the subway pole in a way that his elbow is close to a little girl's head...
"Hold on the pole right, your elbow is too close to her head."
Boy switches his position
"Fix your hat"
Fixes hat - now little boy stands there silently, holding onto the pole and his hat is on straight!
People watching this (including myself) straighten up, some smile to themselves, and others let out a quick "whew"
Watching this, I think back to being a child in church. My father would sit on the pulpit, he was a deacon and so it would be me, my mother and my younger brother (Renny wasn't born yet) sitting in the audience and I would be fooling around:
"Shelby, stop it..you need to pay attention."
Keep on playing around
"Shelby...what did I say"
Stop for a min. - start again...
"You know what - your dad is looking at you and he is about to talk with you."
Stop - silent and slowly look up to the pulpit - please, don't make eye contact...please don't make eye contact...
Dad is staring at me from the pulpit...nostrils flaring
"Do, you want to go talk to your dad?"
Shake my head, eyes down and silence for the rest of the service. Sometimes, I would even fake read the bible, so that I wouldn't have to talk later.
That's why it's so important to have males in our communities and homes ...although women are amazing and the world can't survive (in all senses) without us; sometimes it takes more than a woman to tell us to fix our hats, stand up straight and pay attention.
Shake my head, eyes down and silence for the rest of the service. Sometimes, I would even fake read the bible, so that I wouldn't have to talk later.
That's why it's so important to have males in our communities and homes ...although women are amazing and the world can't survive (in all senses) without us; sometimes it takes more than a woman to tell us to fix our hats, stand up straight and pay attention.
