Hazy Answer

"Can I speak to you for a minute, Pastor?"

It is a familiar request, but this time I wasn't at church.Because I'm on TV, people recognize me and sometimes I am the only counsel they've seen in a while. My last session before this one occurred as I walked through the airport. People will see me and begin to tell me their life stories or at least the story of the moment, hoping for an answer. Much of the time I can help them or at least make them feel better.

"It's my son," he said. "I just don't know what to do. We raised him right and we can't figure out what happened," the man said.He lit up a cigarette in the parking lot and took a deep drag.The place we had just exited was non-smoking and I guess he needed his cigarette NOW.

"What seems to be the problem?" I asked.

"He's smoking dope!" was the answer.His cigarette smoke wafted by my nose and made it twitch."He's evidently been running around with the wrong crowd and has picked up a real bad habit. We've always tried to watch his friends and keep him with good folk," the father explained.He flicked the ashes of his cigarette on the ground. The ashes fell silently, yet with a thud.

"Can you tell me what's wrong with kids today? When I was a teenager we didn't fool with no dope. These kids today just have their heads screwed on crooked," he went on.His cigarette end glowed red like the coil on an electric stove and seemed to get brighter with his anger. He appeared to inhale deep to calm his nerves.

"I guess I just don't understand kids these days," he remarked as a slight breeze blew the smoke into my face making me breathe shallow to keep from coughing."I think it's those rappers and the music that's doing it,"was his explanation as another set of ashes fell like heavy snowflakes. I knew the ashes fell silently, yet it sounded as if I could hear them fall.

"I dunno, guess there are just some things I will never understand. What makes a good kid want to smoke dope is beyond me," he said with a puzzled look as the smoke wafted around his head like fog on a mountain.~

A MountainWings Original~

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