Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Chillax (04/03/14)
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TITLE: Another Planet | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
04/04/14 -
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It’s not every day you feel like an alien in your own home. This Easter was an exception.
My dad just turned 89. He spends his days rocking and rolling around a senior’s care home in his wheelchair refusing to act his age. He was one of those Woodstock veterans who went green far before their time. Even during his five years with the Jesus People he lived life like it was one big party. I decided to have him over to my place for a good old fashioned home cooked meal. And an Easter egg hunt.
My oldest grandson just turned 12. He spends his days zipping and zagging around soccer fields and hockey rinks. He lives like ear buds are part of his anatomy attached to some ipod. His thumb is constantly sliding across his cell phone window and his fingers repeatedly flex up and down as he texts some unknown entity somewhere in the ether. I decided to have him and his family also for the same cooked meal and Easter egg hunt.
It all started reasonably like we lived on the same planet. Dad rang the doorbell about ten times while my son beat out some rhythm on the door itself. Dad high-fived me and prolonged the embrace. Jordan, the 12 year old techno-wizard, endured the hug and slouched off into a lazy-boy. All was peaceful until the Easter egg hunt began.
I know my mom would have had problems doing stuff like this. “It celebrated the pagan instead of the sacred.”
I feel that for believers everything is sacred. Besides, I like fun and I love chocolate.
Anyway, I took all the contestants out into the yard with their baskets and told them that there were only 100 eggs for whoever found them.
Dad was already off before I said 'go' and he’d found his first dozen before Jordan sauntered over to look into a bush. As my grandson reached for a hidden egg, dad plowed into him with his wheelchair, bowled him over, and snatched the egg.
Jordan sprang to his feet in a karate stance and plucked the ear buds out of place. He looked like a cobra coiled to strike.
“Chillax, young Bourne,” dad trumpeted. “Lighten up, kick back, decompress before you blow a gasket.”
Jordan unwound and stared. Then he uttered the first words I’d heard him say. “Peace, papa. Chill out that rocket and take it easy. Relax the lead foot.”
Dad came right back at him. “Marinate the attitude. Mellow the moment. Unwind. Catch the vibes around here.”
Jordan smiled and actually high-fived my dad’s upheld hand. “It’s cool, I’m veggin’, I’m smellin’ the roses and kickin’ back.”
Dad held out his basket to my grandson. “Let’s hang out, form a team, and split the profits.”
Jordan raced off toward a hedge and the two of them had that basket half-filled before most of the rest had only the bottom covered.
I never saw Jordan again that day with his ear buds in or his cell phone in hand. He and dad seemed to connect and form a peace treaty that left us all in awe.
Half the stories dad was spouting about his days in Woodstock might have been partly true but somehow he tossed in stories about Jesus as natural as if they were Easter eggs in a patch of daffodils.
“Life with Jesus is sweeter than an Easter egg and easier to get too.”
“Would I be fightin’ off old coots like you to get my share?”
“There’s plenty to go around, but I’d put my tongue on ice if I were you. I can still take you down.”
“Easy, papa. Check your pulse. Calm that heartbeat. We’re on the same team, remember?”
I knew my son had somehow skipped the church scene with his family after a painful encounter in his teen years. The poison he held didn’t seem to impact Jordan as my dad waxed eloquent about heaven where we’d all ‘chillax forever’ because of what Jesus had done.
When I sat with dad later I stared at him in wonder. “How did you do that?”
He smiled. “Cross-word puzzles.”
“No, how did you get him to come back to this planet? Get engaged? Actually speak?”
“Are you thinking I forgot what it was like to be young? Boys are still boys. You just have to know how to speak their language.”
He smiled. “And you have to know how to pray.”
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Thanks for sharing this entry with us!
well done.
God bless~