An umpire was once asked what is the most offensive word that a baseball player could say to him.
He responded -“you”.
He then went on to relate how a player is allowed to cuss and swear in frustration all that he wanted but the moment he attached the word “you”…that when it became directed at him….was the moment that the player would be ejected from the game.
Sometimes the most innocuous words carry the most powerful punch. So it was last night as I was getting out of my car heading into McDonald’s to see what was holding up my daughter as I waited for her in my car as she was finishing her shift at work.
Earlier I had driven up to my house . Across the street I could see that an impromptu neighbourhood party had broken out with adults eating and talking on the deck while the kids were bouncing around in the Rec room downstairs. Before I could even get my bottle of chardonnay out of the brown paper bag, I was asked by my wife if I would pick up my daughter from McDonald’s.
Dressed in my blue jeans, and black shirt from Costco, with my black Deutchland ballcap, I headed dutifully down to McDonald’s to pick up my daughter. As I lay in my front seat exhausted by a crazy week with the hockey association, having just participated in 2 hockey practices with my boys earlier in the day….I looked over to see a middle age woman and her friend, bikes on the back of their vehicle, eating their McDonald’s dinner …standing in the space between the open doors of their car – using the roof as a makeshift table – as they conversed with one another. As I got out of the car I smiled at them and one offered nicely..
“I guess you are working the late shift – eh?”
I laughed and said “yes”.. I took it as a commiserative comment by a fellow parent. But as I entered the store I realized it was only 7:30pm and thought that really isn’t a late time to be waiting for your kid. I mean I have been out there at midnight snoring while employees drift out of the store while I drift in and out of consciousness.
And then it hit me.
At 300 hundreds yards if you look at my body form you might think you are looking at a rock. At 100 yards you might think you have spotted a gigantic Lego character. At 30 yards you might think you are seeing a Wood Bison. But at 20 feet, in the soft duskiness of early Fall evening you may think you have seen a McDonald’s employee arriving for the late shift.
Seeking solace and encouragement from my daughter on the ride home, I asked her if I looked like one of her fellow employees, and she offered me those soothing words that only a child can provide a father who is in the midst of a job change.
“Well Dad, I don’t know, but you don’t really dress like a business executive anymore”
All I can ask now…..
“Is there no God?”
pucksense 