My hero

One time I got in a bar-fight with some guy and as soon as we squared off, out of “nowhere” I immediately landed a very solid left hook to my opponent’s jaw which made his head snap back and his eyes un-focus and spin wildly like wheels on a slot machine. He began to drunkenly stagger and he took a couple of sideways steps and then toppled over like a felled tree. Next I leapt atop him, and with his head located between my knees. “Rat-a-tat-tat!” “Rat-a-tat-tat!” “Rat-a-tat-tat!” In rapid progression I pounded his face with my fists. I attacked with relentless reckless abandon; my goal was to inflict maximum “pain” before the fight was broken up.

Somehow he managed to wiggle and squirm his way around whereby he was on his stomach and his face was pointing down. I continued pounding, but this time on the back of his “bone-hard” head. “Clunk-clunk-clunk!” “Clunk-clunk-clunk!” I do not remember the reason we were fighting; however I do remember that I was mad as a hornet. I was literally hitting him as hard and as fast as I could with both fists flying in a blur with the force of uncontrolled blind rage.

Finally several bystanders broke up the fight and grabbed my arms from behind me and pulled me off of my foe. I managed to briefly escape their grasp, and before they could recapture and restrain me, I delivered one final swift “bone- crunching” kick to my opponent’s ribs with the steel toe of my heavy work-boot. (Ouch!)

After the fight, all of my friends and assorted bar flies came up to me and were laughing and slapping me on the back congratulating me for “winning” the fight. I was the “Man”. I was basking in the celebratory spotlight of gladiator-like fame and “everyone” wanted to buy me another celebratory beer, (burp); on the other hand my vanquished foe slunk off to the shadows to lick his wounds in humiliating disgrace by himself, and was shunned by all!

Then I went to the emergency room to treat my hands. I still remember the doctor quipping that he would be happy to “set” my knuckles if only he could find them. Pounding the back of that “numb-skull”, (which was as hard as pounding a rock), had relocated my knuckles several inches up my hands. They were located somewhere near the back of my wrist and felt like so much “crushed-mush” under the skin of my hand. The doctor worked the mush back down my hands towards its rightful position at the base of my fingers. (Yeow-w-w!) There were also some broken bones here and there that had to be set, and that was great fun… Not!

I came out of the emergency room with a tightly taped bandage on one hand and a cast about the size of a small melon on the other. I had one badly broken hand and one badly damaged hand, a prescription for pain pills, and an emergency room invoice for more money than I made in six months and of course I did not have insurance. As I began to sober up, my hands were painfully throbbing and so was my head, and to top it off I had a “very” bad taste in my mouth. I slowly shook my head and mused, “Boy I sure showed him didn’t I?”

Sigh too much of our society makes heroes out of idiots. Fighting is for Neanderthals and tough guys aren’t cool, and yet the majority of the kids in high school, the psychos in the bars, and worse, society at large often hero-worship their acts of idiocy. The worst they act, the more it seems they are adulated, (and sadly oftentimes emulated). Our society is making heroes out of “thugs”. Just look at professional sports and the entertainment industry’s line-up of “heroes” like homerun-hitting Barry Bonds, the anabolic steroid poster boy, Michael Vick, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Rosie O’Donnell, the “Pacman”, the entire “Gangsta”-hip-hop-rap-crap industry, or the entire NBA take your pick. I don’t have to enumerate them, just watch “Sportscenter”, or the news, or read the Internet and see who got indicted today and how it will affect their $150 million dollar contracts.

I changed my life decades ago and am glad I did. For years now I have had a business card on my desk that states: “Don’t follow the world, follow Jesus Christ. Choose Jesus and you will never have any regrets and you will enjoy peace beyond anyone’s imagination or understanding. Thugs and the “hip” crowd don’t have peace in their lives and are miserable most every day, this in spite of their wealth and fame. They have broken down lives just like my former lifestyle which in the end left me with, among other things, broken down arthritic hands that these days must be soaked in ice water in order to reduce the swelling and withstand the pain of playing just nine holes of golf. No one should envy or want to be like thugs and the like; instead we should pray for them

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.