Mikey Likes It

Let me start this post by saying, "Thank you," to all the folks who have supported my fast from social speaking for Lent. It's the first Sunday of Lent which puts me officially 10% of the way there, and if the final 36 days are as fruitful as the first 4, I'm going to get a lot out of this.

I want to share one particular experience that stands out from my first day of silence. As with any conscious-effort fasting, I've had a few slips of the tongue in these first few days, but the first one was note worthy and, I think, illustrates a really cool development in the world of Craig.

My first slip up was a reflex response to say, "God bless you," when my friend Melissa sneezed. I hope that this doesn't strike anyone as a particularly upsetting slip up, if I can even consider it that. (After all, the point of this whole thing is to learn to listen, not to be rude, and in the case of saying things like "God bless you" or "Please and Thank you," I can hardly see a moral dilemma here regarding my Lenten fast.) The reason I found this particular reflex response noteworthy is because it was just that--reflexive.

So what? Well here's the back story: 4ish years ago, I was climbing with a good friend, Mikey Guarraia. We were working together through a project that he had put up in the gym that neither of us had been able to send. About 2/3 of the way through the climb, Mikey's looking really strong, and I'm convinced that he's going to send. Then Mikey sneezes. The sneeze doesn't pull Mikey off the climb, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Sweet, he's gonna finish it! Then he releases from the wall, hangs on the rope and stares down at me. "What's up?" I ask. "Um, what about 'God bless you, Mikey'?" he replies. Hhmmmm, hadn't really thought of it.

Probably doesn't sound like much of a story, but at that moment I became far more aware of how important little things like saying "God bless you" can be. Mikey was someone I had a great deal of respect for and to see him so disappointed and upset struck a chord with me. I made a conscious effort to start saying "God bless you." It was hard at first. It started by me hearing someone sneeze, and hearing someone else say "God bless you," and me thinking, "Damn, I missed it." Eventually I started to get it. And now, I'm happy to say, that my first slip in my 40 days without social speech was the say "God bless you" as a knee jerk reaction.

This is a simple illustration of personal growth--the same kind of personal growth that I hope to get out of this Lenten experience. Maybe I'll learn to be a better listener, maybe I'll learn to think more before I speak instead of just saying the first thing that comes to my mind, maybe it'll be a totally different outcome. Personal growth isn't always planned or expected; it comes from experiences, some you can predict, others come out of left field, like Mikey's stare while dangling 20 feet above me.

So that was my first realization this Lent, that in some small way, I'm a more polite person than I was 4 years ago. To me, knowing that makes this whole effort of Lent more promising and more rewarding. So thank you all for your support and kind words, and God bless you.