Just Asking
I left my house by 5 a.m., drove to Louisville to pray with a parishioner who was undergoing a complicated and major surgical procedure, drove back to Lebanon, and walked into the church office by about 10 a.m. Hearing someone speaking loudly to me from the other end of the hallway, I turned around to make sure he was addressing me. He was. “Well, it must be nice not to have to come to work until 10 o’clock,” he hollered. I immediately had a vision of Jackie Gleason as “Ralph,” in the classic TV sitcom, “The Honeymooners,” when he would get into an argument with his wife, “Alice,” and finally in frustration, yell, “One of these days, Alice, one of these days–Pow! Zoom! Straight to the moon!” You’ve been there, too, haven’t you? Someone sees one aspect of your life and makes a general, negative assumption from it. Or they take a part of something you’ve said and go to town with it, putting their personal spin on what you said—one you never intended. Things are not always what they seem. I’ve always loved that story about the airplane that was diverted from its destination to another a city. The pilot announced what had happened and that all passengers would have to deplane and reboard in about an hour. Everyone got off the plane except one blind lady. Apparently, she was a frequent flyer on that route because the pilot saw her and called her by name. Having noticed her guide dog resting quietly next to her, he asked, “Sally, we’re going to be here for an hour. Would you and your dog like to get off the plane? “No,” she said, “but someone could walk my dog for a few minutes, if that’s not too much trouble.” The pilot himself offered to walk the dog. Now imagine the scene in the boarding area: suddenly, passengers see the pilot getting off the plane with a guide dog for the blind. Even worse, the pilot is wearing sunglasses. Passengers scatter, some trying to change planes or find another airline. Appearances are often misleading. People often want to make negative assumptions about others but don’t want to be responsible for having made them. A tricky way to do that nowadays is to use the phrase, “Just asking.” It works like this, “Have you noticed that Bill has worn that same shirt twice in the last week? Is he color-blind, or does he think that shirt is so rad that we’re too dumb to notice he’s worn it twice in the past few days? Just asking.” The questioner wants to gossip about why Bill is over-wearing a shirt but doesn’t want to be held responsible for starting something and would rather be perceived as simply a curious bystander, hence the little phrase, “Just asking.” I caught myself using that phrase the other day. …
Find It, Do It
Church Signs Along Kentucky Highway 210
The man caught my attention as I was cruising down Kentucky Highway 210, somewhere between Hodgenville and Campbellsville. My five-year old grandson and I were traveling alone, and the little guy had fallen asleep in the back seat, worn out, I suppose, from a full day of fun, taking in whatever interested us along Kentucky …