The year was 1975 and I worked as a manager for a nationally
known shoe corporation. The State was Alabama and I managed a lease unit in a
large department store.
My shoe department
happened to be in the back of the store, and I usually found myself either
waiting on customers or putting out stock. One day a middle-aged man, and his
almost grown son walked up as I was walking towards the front of the store. And
the father asked where he could find a bathroom. I motioned towards the back wall, and said something innocuous, and went about my business.
If I had conjured
up a thousand possibilities, I would have never dreamed up what happened next. I finished my chore, whatever it was, and headed back to my shoe department. I remembered something I had to do in the stockroom, and entered through an open doorway.
Suddenly before
me, in all his glory, was that same retarded young man…urinating on the floor
of my stockroom. Well, it didn’t take me long to scream at him… “Stop, what are
you doing? This isn’t the bathroom!”
Apparently, the
boy’s father had directed his son towards the back of the store, and the young
fella headed towards a door he thought was
the bathroom.
I scared the young
lad badly. Of that I’m quite sure. He lost no time “zipping up,” and getting
out of there. And I was left to clean up the yellow, liquid mess.
I’ve thought of
that incident many times since then. I’m afraid I wasn’t very charitable to the
boy. And I’m a little ashamed of my words, and actions that day.
That young man is
bound to be pushing fifty now, and I think of him sometimes. If I could speak
to him again, I’d apologize for my sharp admonition. He was just “doing what
comes naturally,” and, considering his mental challenges, he had made an honest
mistake.
There are those
among us who don’t function, who don’t operate as we do. It pays to be
charitable. We have so much of which to be thankful.
By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "Unconventional Devotions" Copyright 2005
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