I thought I would share with you a short conversation that happened between me and an 11 year old girl (we’ll call her Alice) who attends the youth group I run every week. The actual conversation happened well over a year ago, but has stuck in my memory ever since.
Alice: “Where does our subs money go, Spaniel”.
Spaniel: “It helps to pay for the cost of renting the hall for the year, Alice.”
*thoughtful pause*
Alice: “Do the Council make you come and run the youth group every week?”
Spaniel: *completely stunned by the question, but rallying fast* “No, Alice – I run it because I want to. “
Alice: “What? For free?”
Spaniel: “Yes, for free. I give up my time voluntarily to do this!”
Alice: *furrows brow* “You’re weird.”
At the end of the conversation, Alice skipped over to join her friends, and left me standing there, replaying the conversation. Did Alice think I was here serving out some Community Service Sentence? What on earth had made her think of such a thing?
And then I realised – if I wasn’t being paid to be here, and I wasn’t here under some kind of duress, if I hadn’t been made to do this by some authority or other; what other possible reason on earth would there be for me to turn up every week?
I think it tells me rather a lot about Alice and how she sees the world.
I think it tells you rather a lot about me, too…..
Indeed you are saintly!
Moobs
You’re a rare and wonderful thing, Spaniel: an honest to goodness, DECENT person. Don’t ever change!
I am not a saint, by any stretch of the imagination!!!!
But I do a lot of nice things for free. I guess there aren’t many people who do that any more…
Spaniel,
Wow! I can FINALLY check out your blog. I have not been able to use the school’s internet server or other servers that use filters because you always were blocked – as PORN! No idea why that was, but you were always blocked.
However, now that you apparently have moved I see that I can access your new site. Excellent.
BTW…Alice apparently thinks only parents or people paid to be around kids should be around kids. I think she unintentionally stated how demanding children can be, especially when not your own.
Cheers,
MSG
Aww that’s actually kind of sad. Maybe it has something to do with the parenting she’s getting…
Perhaps her parents bill her monthly. Now there’s an idea …