A Small Catastrophe

A Small Catastrophe

Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

Luke 6:31

My mother was the second of six beautiful sisters raised on a farm in East Texas. As my dad often said, “There wasn’t a clunker in the bunch.”

Now in their nineties, the two oldest sisters love to reminisce about their growing-up years, including stories of pranks they played on each other and on unsuspecting visitors.

It seems that the senior sister, my aunt Zelma, had a friend spending the night with her. An uncle was also temporarily living there and working for my granddad. He was using as his bedroom “the little room”—a long, narrow room with a door at one end and one window at the other.

The uncle hated cats, and my grandparents kept a healthy crop of them to help eliminate rats and other vermin that crept in from the surrounding woods. So he was constantly complaining about the meowing and squalling that comes naturally to the annoying, leg-rubbing fur balls.

Knowing his passionate dislike for cats, Aunt Zelma and her friend crept around the house and positioned themselves just below the uncle’s window. Because the weather was hot, the screenless window was open to allow some cooler air in. Aunt Zelma’s friend, who had a knack for making the sound of a squalling Siamese cat, proceeded to yowl.

“Meoooow, meoooow.”

“Scat!” said the uncle.

“Meoooow!”

“Scat, I said!”

“Meoooow, meooooow!”

Now totally frustrated, the uncle, yelling “Get outta here!” grabbed one of his work boots and threw it out the window.

Of course, the boot hit Aunt Zelma’s friend in the face and gave her a huge black eye. Aunt Zelma says that explaining that black eye the next morning was pretty hard. And they didn’t soon repeat their prank because, she says, “It was a big catastrophe!”

Father, please help us to be more considerate of others and to learn to treat them with the same kindness we would like to receive. Amen.