First Posted 21-Oct-2014
My friends in recovery were the moles whose heads had popped up to be whacked. Through the 12 Steps these friends are learning to live more sedate lives without the hurt, hangup or habit that made them whackable. Those spots where they were whacked may have healed. The memory of how it hurt doesn’t heal as easily. One way this plays out is a fear of anything which would push their head up above the level playing field and perhaps make them a whackable mole.
A couple of decades ago some jails got painted pink because some academic did a study that asserted that pink was a sedating color for prisoners. The answer to the problems of jail or prison was the color pink. Uhm, no. Most of those inside are there because they didn’t know when to quit and became a whacked mole. It has nothing to do with the color of the walls.
I had dinner with a friend in recovery. It seems that for him, my head is above the plain and very whackable. I stand out. I am brash and difficult to deal with. Yeah, the thing I learned in childhood is that I was smarter than most and could talk my way into or out of most anything. If I want to piss you off I know how. I also learned that I stood out as a target, as a mole that could/would be whacked.
I don’t care. Whack me. Won’t do a damned thing to deter me. A world conformed, everything flat, nothing sticking out or complicated, is a world I don’t want to live in. Give me a world in which things are not merely shades of grey. A world that is technicolor, much more complex and interesting. A world full of hot messes and cold messes and folk who have become clean.
Some of us will defiantly stick our heads up, staring down the one holding the mallet used to whack us on the head. It is our choice, stupid maybe, but still our choice. Pink walls are not the answer. Nor is a nation all wearing Mao suits and memorizing the little red book so that no one’s head sticks above the level playing field. The answer is us, in our mess, learning to serve first, be missional first, and while doing so, love God, neighbors and enemies alike.