Ugly Lessons

And I'm not referring to the ugly mug my kids see during their home school lessons. No, this was an unfortunate (but fortunately rare) lesson in human nature.

An acquaintance of my older daughter was creating a ruckus in the parking lot between several buildings in our townhouse complex. An owner (middle aged woman) came out to holler a complaint. She was obviously already in a bad mood - who knows what had happened in her day (or life) to upset her - and this boy became the target of her ire. Being a nosy neighbor, and knowing the boy, I suggested to the youngster that he quit making such a din, as the lady was upset enough. That suggestion lasted as long as one would suspect with an eleven-year-old boy, about five minutes.

The next time our irate neighbor approached the boy his sitter intervened. This girl has anger issues of her own. Imagine being seventeen years old, oldest of six children, in charge of watching and schooling all five siblings for a majority of each day (the youngest still in diapers) as momma works afternoons and nights, and pappa is gone (a divorce the children learned of when the legal papers were left lying about) - no social life, no contact with kids outside the immediate area, in a crowded two bedroom townhouse all day - I think the anger and attitude are understandable, right or not.

Long story short, the two short tempers ended up choking each other until the seventeen-year-old hit the pavement. Police cars, firetruck, ambulance... more excitement than this quiet neighborhood has seen in many years.

Sad situation, but it does provide a "teachable moment". The kids learned some of what leads to the anger, how the situation escalates, how people should and should not handle these problems, and a quick Bible lesson in turning the other cheek. Sometimes good can come from bad.