Dumbo Paints the Cross

The old wooden cross at the north end of the church’s community garden before being painted.

Dumbo Paints the Cross

One of our more mentally challenged members—come to think of it, we only have one—parked his old vehicle right next to the wooden cross near the Community Garden and unloaded a ladder so that he could whitewash it. He made a quick job of it because he had appointments, and because he wanted to take advantage of the slim ray of sun that showed up for a few minutes yesterday. He finished quickly, threw the ladder and paint can into the back of the van and…

…spun his wheels in the mud right down to the axels. I may have mentioned that this person isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

He got his jack out—he is now very late—and jacked the van up, put boards under the tires and…spun his wheels some more. Sinking, sinking, and sinking.

One definition of insanity is to do the same dumb thing over and over again. Which our boy did. Jack-spin. Spin-jack. Etc.

While this was going on he felt extremely sorry for himself. Midway through it all, however, he realized that all his toil and strife was happening at the foot of the garden’s old cross. The moral of the story is that he compared his current suffering with the suffering of our Lord on the cross and quietly and peacefully felt calm and grateful for what was now just a moment’s frustration.

At this point our slow friend walked over to Randy’s Towing and, with the aid of a truck and a brighter mind, he was out of the mud in a jiffy. Randy did not accept any money. “I like that garden,” he said.

Anyway, if you drive by on Church Street look over towards the garden and admire the newly painted cross. A lot is beginning to happen, and happens, on this little piece of dirt.