Teach your children well
I was walking Stella yesterday and we passed some boys playing on a neighbor's lawn. The one who lives in the house is kind of geeky & shy; for a while he was kind of chunky, but he's getting taller now & he seems to be leaving a lot of that awkwardness behind him. Well, this kid really loves Stella, and she loves it when he runs over and pets her and admires her ears and soft coat. When he has friends over, he always introduces Stella to them, and usually tells a funny little story about something she did while she wags her tail and basks in their admiration. Most of his friends are pretty nice, and Stella will usually hang out a little while before moving on to the next group of admirers.
But there was this one kid in the group that I hadn't seen before. He seemed slightly larger than the others (who, like most 11 or 12 year-olds these days are all a little taller than I am), and the first thing I noticed about him was the mean look on his face as he deliberately kicked the soccer ball directly at the stomach of the smallest kid. The second thing I noticed about him was his shirt:
The boys all came over and Stella stopped and wagged her tail.
"This is Stella," the neighbor kid said. "Isn't she pretty?" The bigger kid was hanging back a little and kind of sneering at the other boys who were all petting Stella and agreeing that they didn't know any other dog as smooth and shiny as Stella, and wow, her ears are so big, and of course Stella was loving it. So Mr. Big comes over with a stick in his hand; at first he's brandishing it at his side like a riding crop. Then starts waving it really fast, right in Stella's face. Stella stepped back and stared the kid down, and the other kids tried to grab the stick, and tried telling him to cut it out.
The kid said, "This dog is stupid - he can't even chase a stick," and then he started threatening the other boys with the stick. A small scuffle ensued and moved up the lawn. I heard my neighbor defending Stella's honor: "She has better things to do than play fetch with you, ya big loser." I don't know whether the bully was disarmed by the other kids -- he was certainly outnumbered.
Stella, meanwhile, noticed her friend Arlo-Jeanne coming up the block, so we moved along.
But what's up with that "I pray like I play" bullshit on his shirt? Does he bully Jesus? Does he try to hit god with a stick? Is he petulant and hostile as he issues a list of demands every night before bed? Does he try to make the other children pray to his god at lunch time?
I wish I'd said something to the kid, but to be perfectly honest I was a little scared of him. He was bigger and he had a weapon. I just didn't want to argue with him.
And I really didn't want to meet his parents.
2 comments:
Yeah, I'm sure that's true. But it was sure strange, how I felt about it. It was a small incident, really, but there was something else going on -- it sort of crystallized, in a sense, how I've been feeling about these so-called christian thugs who are all over the place nowadays. And he was just a kid & all, which made it even weirder. You're absolutely right that it's likely he's afraid of women -- and it's my experience that that makes boys and men like him even scarier.
If he'd hurt Stella, though, or even scared her a little, I would have let the little jerk have it, no question.
I didn't read the back of the shirt, but I saw another one (must be giving them away at Vacation Bible School) and on the back it says "With All My Heart and Soul," which makes it even ickier to me. I mean, if he's putting his whole heart and soul into being a shit-heeled bully before he's even in high school, the kid'll go far. Maybe he can maintain a C average and go on to be president.
Post a Comment