Even Leaders have their days!

Date: October 30, 2007

Even Leaders have their days!

Reenie and I read this book to our boys when they were young: “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day” by Judith Viorst. Alexander, a grade school boy, describes some of his personal experiences for that day.

-I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running.

-At breakfast Nick found a Junior Undercover Agent code ring in his cereal box but in my breakfast cereal box all I found was breakfast cereal.

-At school Mrs. Dickens liked Paul’s picture of the sailboat better than my picture of the invisible castle. At singing time I she said I sang too loud. At counting time I left out sixteen.

-My friend Paul told me Philip was his best friend now and Albert was his second best friends and that I was only his third best friend.

-I went to the dentist after school and I was the only one who had a cavity.

-We went to my dad’s office to pick him up and I was careful, except for my elbow. He said not to fool around with the phone, but I think I called Australia. Dad said not to pick him up anymore.

-There were lima beans for dinner and I hate lima beans. There was kissing on TV and I hate kissing.

-At night my bath water was too hot, the soap got in my eyes and my favorite marble went down the drain.

Here’s a true story from an adult perspective.

The Encyclopedia Britannica’s 1982 Yearbook, under the heading “Strange and Unusual Events.” tells about a man named Brian Heise who had what you might call a “very irritating day”:

Brian Heise had more than his share of luck in July of that year, and most of it was bad. When his apartment in Provo, Utah, became flooded from a broken pipe in the upstairs apartment, the manager told him to go out and rent a water vacuum. That’s when he discovered his car had a flat tire. He changed it, then went inside again to phone a friend for help. The electric shock he got from the phone so startled him that he inadvertently ripped the instrument off the wall. Before he could leave the apartment a second time, a neighbor had to kick down the apartment door because water damage had jammed it tight. While all of this was going on, someone stole Heise’s car, but it was almost out of gas. He found it a few blocks away but had to push it to the gas station, where he filled up the tank. That evening Heise attended a military ceremony at Brigham Young University. He injured himself severely when he somehow sat on his bayonet, which had been tossed onto the front seat of his car. Doctors were able to stitch up the wound, but no one was able to resuscitate four of Heise’s canaries that were crushed to death by falling plaster. After Heise slipped on the wet carpet and badly injured his tailbone, he said he began to wonder if “God wanted me dead, but just kept missing.”

Sometimes even leaders have their days when things just don’t go right. When life throws us a curve, keep swinging.

Keep making lemonade!

Dan Bickel
Wisconsin District Superintendent