Yesterday, I had the treat to chat with Neil, a VIG (Very Important Guppy) who's
15 and already being made fun at school. I shared with Neil that I understand the
shoes he's in due to the fact that all my life I've made fun of for all kinds of reasons:
Being too short, too skinny, too...too...too.....
It hurt. For many years the mockery hit me to the core.
I shared with him that my perspective changed when I was about 12 because of
one kids' actions and his boldness to take a stand. For me.
Of all the instruments my parents could have chose (or I could have chose) to play,
I had to choose the Trombone. Ridiculous. The thing was taller than me and when
in the case, it towered even higher above me. At the age of twelve I was merely four
feet tall but I did my best to play it and stretch the arm as far as it would go.
It was fun for ahwile, until one day I was boarding the bus near my Milford, NH
home. I noticed a few boys were laughing and pointing at me so I just passed them
and went to the back of the yellow Blue Bird. I sat down and they made their way
down the aisle and sat in front and beside me.
Next thing I know, the windows were opened, my case grabbed and thrown out the
window. They were laughing, calling me horrible names and just plain playing the part
that haters play. I was in tears. I'm sure now this all was happened in less than 90 seconds
but then it seemed an eternity.
There was a kid named Jason and he lived down the street from me but until then, we had
never really known each other. He came blazing down the bus aisle with his baseball bat
held horizontally, and knocked those punks back into their seats. And just behind him,
the bus driver. Jason proclaimed, "You leave Dave alone! None of us deserve to be
treated like that!" Promptly the bus driver ordered the offending boys to the front of the
bus and I never saw or heard from them again. But Jason stayed near me and asked if
I was alright. We stopped the bus, retrieved my case and we were on our way.
Jason and I didn't really become close but we kept an eye out for each other until I left for
another school the next year.
Jason taught me a very valuable lesson: To be an advocate for those less fortunate. To take a
stand for someone being wronged. To not sit on the sidelines. And to let junk like that roll
off my back and learn to not let it dictate the kind of person I am or am going to be.
I shared this story with Neil. We both were misty eyed.
Neil promised to be that kind of person: An advocate for the disenfranchised.
I promised him I would be too.
What a world it would be if all of us chose to be that kind of person, yes? So, haters?
We give you over to God and we choose to love well. Period.
