A despicable deed — 1962
A DESPICABLE and DEPLORABLE DEED — 1962 —
I have a distinct remembrance of a nefarious deed I committed when I was ten years of age. I am somewhat ashamed to include this experience in my history, but the lesson I learned will perhaps benefit others as well.
I was at the time taking piano lessons with my sisters Linda and Dayna, and my mother had arranged for the three of us to take lessons from a respected music professor at the University of Nevada. Once a week, Dayna would drive us to our lessons; I would have my 30-minute lesson first, and I was then expected to sit quietly on a bench in a hallway during the two 45-minute lessons of my sisters. Enduring the agony of my own lesson was difficult enough, but having to wait for one and one-half hours for my sisters pushed my ten-year old patience to the limit. As I languished and agonized through these weekly 2-hour sessions, I decided to do something that would not only occupy my time, but also vent some of my frustrations. While my sisters were having their lessons, I snuck around to all the men’s restrooms in the 3-story music building, went into each toilet stall, fastened the locking device on the swinging door, and then crawled out of the stall through the gap between the floor and the stall wall, thus leaving all the stalls in the men’s restrooms in the entire building locked from inside, without an occupant. I carried out this sinister activity for three or four weeks running until finally my day of reckoning arrived. I was in the process of locking the toilet stalls one day, when, as I crawled out under the stall wall, I found myself staring at a worn pair of work boots. As I slowly and ashamedly rose to my feet, I found those boots were worn by an elderly, hunched-over gentleman wearing a custodian’s uniform. I prepared myself for a severe thrashing, both verbal and physical; however, none was forthcoming. After a few moments of silence, this Christ-like man said, in calm tones, “Young man, I’m not sure why you are locking those stalls, but I am the one who has to use a ladder to climb into the stalls to undo the latch. Doing that is extremely difficult for me because of my age and health. Please don’t do this anymore.” With that he simply turned and left. Humiliation and remorse flooded my conscience as I realized the idiocy of my recent actions. I almost wished that he had thrashed me, as the physical pain would have ameliorated the mental anguish I was feeling. This Christ-like response of this elderly man toward a foolish young boy is permanently etched in my memory, and has served many times as a gentle reminder of two important ‘life-lessons’: 1) Choose the right, in every circumstance 2) The beauty and importance of a gentle response in unpleasant circumstances.
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