My brother Mark, who is not on Facebook, because hes focussed elsewhere and likes to be far, quite far, from the center of most discussions, is, nevertheless, one of my heroes. I recently had an e-mail exchange with another family member about Mark in which I told a story about him as a child. Im posting it here because other FB friends who know him will see in this story that Marks extraordinary stubbornness and go-it-his-own-way character has been there from the get go: One story about Mark from our childhood, perhaps relevant here, comes to mind. Id say that he was the pickiest eater among us when we were kids, which, given the dinnertime requirement that we finish eating everything we were served, came as something of a cost to him. He picked at his food more and ate, even chewed, slower than the rest of us. Sometimes, when he didnt like a particular food item, he would pick up a little bit on his fork, put it in his mouth, chew extremely slowly and after a time, a very long time, swallow. It exasperated Mom and Dad no end. Long after Teri, Dale and I were excused from the table--and we couldnt leave without being excused--Mark would still be sitting there with a mouthful of food that he refused to swallow on Mom and Dads timetable. The truth is that the stuff that sat in his mouth under those conditions must have tasted terrible when he did finally swallow it. Over time, I came to see Mark as the very first practitioner of nonviolent resistance to authority with whom I was personally acquainted. No amount of direct confrontation with Dad under those circumstances, no anger, no focussing of presumed authority, no drawing of lines, ever caused Mark to waver. He ate and swallowed on his own timetable.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 17:28:01 +0000
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