MR. SANDSTROM TAUGHT US
Mr. Sandstrom taught us more than he knew.
What was it with Mr.
Sandstrom? How could he have done
it? And having done it how could
he face us? How could he face himself?
Anyone can make a mistake,
sure. That is no big deal.
But don’t you need to acknowledge
it, even get a chuckle over it?
I mean do something to establish your human equality with the onlookers,
even if they are much younger?
And what about Mr.
Sandstrom’s son? We all knew what
Ron was thinking. He had to
be thinking what we were thinking only more. Anyone of us would have been ashamed to have done it. As it was we were embarrassed for
Mr. Sandstrom and for his son, especially his son.
Why did he try to carry it
off as if it hadn’t happened when he knew we all knew? What was the point? He only painted himself as a fool and a
lying fool too. If he had
accepted the obvious we all would have had a laugh with him and then respected
him. The way he did it left us no
feeling for him but contempt.
Because we were teenagers, had he thought we were blind and stupid as
well as young?
His face was not so blank as
to disguise from us the fact that he knew he had done a foolish thing. Our faces were blank except for an
alertness to our new problem. What
response was allowed or proper or appropriate? We were his juniors but we had just watched our elder
adult mentor demonstrate that he was inferior in deed and in morality.
As I said, a laugh and a
fresh start would have carried the day.
But to teach us something that we all had long known and to make such a
tenderfoot mistake! Well, it was
quite an eye opener for us about adults.
Mr. Sandstrom probably should
never have tried to teach experienced boy scouts how to chop wood. He certainly shouldn’t have taken so
many swings of the axe before he took off the sheath. “That’s enough”, he said, “You’ve learned enough for
today”.
MORE THAN YOU KNEW MR.
SANDSTROM!
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