Yesterday I purchased my first new set of pony tail holders for the first time since 2009.
Throughout my career at Union Mission I had a pony tail. My brother David stole every picture ever taken, displayed or hidden from at my parents house. Lately he has taken to posting them on Face Book. He's big on what used to be. And it's fun ... seeing us the way we used to be.
I don't dwell on it. I mean it was all great! Growing up in Port Wentworth, Georgia was glorious ... once you got used to the smell of the paper factory. But we had a swimming pool that my cousin worked at so I got in for free. There was an abandoned factory in the woods and that is where we played. On the other side was another set of woods with a big canal going through it. There was a large log over the canal that we would run across.
Once I went out to play on a Sunday morning with my heathen Port Wentworth friends. At church time my Mom and Dad sent David to get me for church. He showed up in the woods wearing a three-piece suit (very nice vest) and was walking across the log to get me. He was maybe nine. I was ten.
"Mike," he yelled. "It's time for church."
Those are fighting words to a ten year old boy in the woods. So Gene Prevatt, Robert Mixon, and I started throwing rocks at him. He ducked then fell in the canal ... three piece suit and all ... when he came out of the water he was crying and told me he was telling Mom and Dad ... as though it wasn't obvious with his wet three piece suit and all ... Gene and Robert were nowhere to be found (I guess they went to church).
What I remember next ... and this is a very vivid memory ... is walking out on that log and sitting down ... alone in the glory of the woods ... water beneath me ... sunshine glistening through the trees ... thinking to myself ...
"Shit! I'm in serious trouble! If I go to church it could be worse than Dad beating the hell out of me."
So I stayed in the woods.
The family went to church without me.
I communed with God ...
Meaning I pleaded "God if you get me out of this, I promise to never do it again."
God let me down.
I got a serious spanking.
David laughed.
But I tell you that to tell you this.
My pony tail is almost back.
My hairs longer than its been in years. Like the rest of my soul, I gave it to Union Mission auctioning it off for $1000 for Parent & Child which was broke ... but its all about the people getting what they need ... cause God Damn they need it. And that's where God is anyway.
But yesterday I pulled out a pony tale band and wrapped it in my hair. Felling like Samson I went to the Bored meeting. My strength was with me.
"You have your hair in a bun?" Johnny O asked.
Johnny O can be dense. When he dies he's getting cremated. I'm bringing marshmallows.
But ...
on this Sunday morning ...
I'm skipping church ... throwing rocks ... understanding that God transcends all of this ....
and I'm a ten year old boy ...
sitting on a log with my legs dangling over the water ...
with long hair that parents hated ...
happy to be who I am.
