Thinking

 By: L Jones

One day a bird was flying to a warmer climate for the winter. A strong cold wind blew and disoriented the bird. It sent the bird plummeting towards the snow packed Earth, where it froze on impact. Some time later, an elephant walked by and took a dump on the bird. The warmth from the dump revived the bird. Shortly after that, a lion walked by and licked and cleaned the dump from the bird. Immediately after, the lion ate the bird.
The point, just because someone takes a dump on you, doesn’t mean they want to harm you, and just because someone cleans you up, doesn’t mean they want to help you.

It was a cold winter day in Alaska, some day in January 1993; not sure of the exact day. I was a private then in the Army, assigned to a combat engineer unit. This was my first duty station and my first real taste of the military; basic training is a mind game, but your unit is reality. I wasn’t adjusting well with my new found reality; incurring the wrath of my first sergeant regularly. This day was no different.

Knock. Knock. Knock. I delivered three subtle blows to the door of my first sergeant’s opened door and stood quietly until invited in. Inside my stomach was in knots, sort of like when you’re in trouble waiting on your discplinary parent to come home to sentence you and immediately carry out the punishment. He told me to get in the office and close the door.

A few choice words spewed from his mouth. The words were harsh and stern and pierced like daggers, penetrating my soul, while deflating my ego. A heat surged inside of me; anger maybe, but it seemed more like embarrassment looking back on it. My eyes had become glossy, near tearing; immediately he halted his verbal assault.

The words that came from his mouth after that have stayed with me and helped guide me through my military career and life. He told me “Look private, as long as I stay on you and fuss at you, I care. When I stop, I stopped.”

Before that talk, I had always looked at him in a negative way, because I viewed him and the elephant as an enemy to my being. Before that, I judged people’s actions without first considering their true intentions. Before that, I thought many a lion had my best interest at heart and blindly let them control me.

My last thought, you can’t judge a book by its cover; read the pages and know the story.