Chili-fest

Jan

21

2009

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Jan

21

2009

The other night I got roped into attending a “Cowboy party”. Lest you think I am a dork, consider that I did it for my wife. I did not manage to stay married in spite of my many weaknesses for 38 years by being stupid. I am not “hen-pecked” in the least and in general just do as I please; however I do realize that if there is to be peace and harmony in the family, I need to consider her feelings as well as my own. This was one of those occasions. Reluctantly I agreed to go to the party.

My wife is very gregarious and enjoys parties. Although I am not an introvert, I do not enjoy most parties. People have a tendency to act silly at them and say a lot of words about nothing, boring me to tears, and invariably there is some loud mouthed drunk acting nonsensical-boisterous at these events. I especially did not look forward to this one where everyone was supposed to dress up like a cowboy. It just did not seem dignified.

Although I own several pairs of cowboy boots, since I am in the Florida Keys I have little occasion to wear them and I had left them all up at our plantation, but I did have a large audacious looking cowboy hat adorned with pheasant feathers, some blue jeans, and a semi-western looking shirt which I unbuttoned half way down like a redneck. My wife looked like a cute little cowgirl in her cowgirl hat, blue jeans, bandana, and western shirt. When we got there about 100 people were milling around doing their best to look like Keys cowboys and cowgirls. Some were dressed as gunfighters, saloon dance hall girls, and one lady was dressed in a red leather jumpsuit that had to be rather warm in the south Florida sun; others looked like they had just arrived back from riding in off the range. One lady was wearing spurs. (I hoped that her and her husband did not come to the party by boat.)

Al Gore would not have approved of this party. At least ten vats of chili were lined up on long tables. This party was a chili-fest! Gore’s cause for global warming would not be advanced tonight after all of these Keys cowboys gorged on all of that chili. The attendees for the most part were all family people and not much drinking was going on which was good. There was the obnoxious exception or two as there always is at such an event, but overall the party went much better than I had expected and I met several potential new fishing buddies and had a good time.

Seeing all of these people decked out in there cowboy boots reminded me of a friend of mine. In fact he is the one who gave me the big audacious looking cowboy hat, which by the way I got any number of compliments on as being the best looking cowboy hat at the party. This guy was my hunting buddy for over a decade and is as redneck as redneck can be. One day he had on a new pair of “dress” cowboy boots made out of lizard. He appeared to be very proud of them and in fact he actually had his blue jeans tucked inside of them when he wore them. Several of his friends and I were over at his house and I laughed derisively at him and made a point of poking fun at him to no end in front of his friends about it. I just could not get over his wearing his boots with his pants tucked inside of them like that. I noticed that his friends looked at me in a rather odd way in silence and did not seem to share in the humor of it all. I just assumed that they did not have much of a sense of humor.

Later that night we had all agreed to go out and eat and everyone was dressed up in their Sunday best to go out to dinner. When I walked into the living room my buddy and four of his friends were sitting around talking. All of them had on cowboy boots and all had their blue jeans tucked inside. At that point I discovered why they did not find it funny when I was needling my friend about it; that was the style of the land! Now all of my friend’s buddies are sitting there coldly staring at me with a defiant blaze in their eyes as though they were just daring me to say something about “them” having their pants tucked inside of their cowboy boots. I just smiled like some silly fool and managed to squeak, “Ya’ll ready to eat?”

Hmmm It was not the first time I had ever put my foot, (or should I say my cowboy boot), in my big mouth and sadly it has not been the last. My friend was as proud of those brand new lizard cowboy boots as anything that he owned and with little thought for his feelings, I had ridiculed him to no end about them in front of his friends. As it turned out, he was the one who was dressed appropriately and in accordance with the dress code of the rural area in which he lived, and I was the one who stuck out like a sore thumb. He and his friends made me feel like an idiot without saying a word about it. Here it is twenty years later and I still am humbled about it and I still feel stupid, as I should.

Sigh. If only I could concentrate on bearing the fruit of the Spirit, which by the way includes: kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control, love, joy, peace, faithfulness, and longsuffering.

Happy trails to you!

James 3:18
Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace



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