Dan’s
cousin Baldy, probably in his middle teens, was a great joke & story
teller. We were a few years younger than Baldy and all three of us worked for
my dad at Myers Plant Co. – “Home of
50,000 plants.” Dad often put us to work with a sophisticated advanced technological
tool called a “hoe” – a word that has definitely changed its meaning since we
were kids.
When
we were out in the field hoeing, Baldy would become like a “divinely inspired
prophet” -- a channel through which endless jokes and stories would flow. Of
course, an important part of this prophetic ritual was that it required Baldy
to stop hoeing and used the hoe handle like a staff -- kind of
like you see Moses leaning on. Of course, we had to also stop hoeing so we
wouldn’t miss anything.
One
day, after a house had caught fire and burned a few nights earlier, Baldy
shared a mysterious insight from his wisdom, along with a deadly warning, with
us. He pulled us in close and revealed to us why the house had burned -- he had looked at the moon through the branches
of a tree the night of the fire. He warned us never to do it or our houses
would burn too. Now Dan and I knew the secret and understood the burden that
Baldy must have been carrying on his shoulders. He had caused the fire.
I
remember many times in my life, beginning soon after receiving Baldy shared his
revelation, that as soon as I realized I was looking at the moon through the
branches of a tree – I would immediately
divert my eyes as I recalled Baldy’s warning. I did not want to cause our house to burn
down.
Amazingly,
long after I analyzed the event, knowing that my memories entered my mind when
I saw the world through the eyes a kid, and that the source of those words was another
kid – I still caught myself unconsciously
diverting my eyes when I saw it! But, just becoming aware of how that event
influenced my life and my reactions to something I saw, made me understand the
power one person can have in another person’s by what they say – so, I started trying
to identify other ideas that some other Baldy had planted in my mind so I
wouldn’t be afraid to look at the moon through the branches of a tree.
Happy
cogitating,
JM
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