Have you ever thought you understood what someone said, only to find out later it wasn't what they meant? I think we all have had those experiences. My wife's father was a Superintendent of Schools in some very small school districts in this large state of ours. He had just moved in to a rural district and was wanting some exposure to the folks in the community, when one of the leaders asked if he would like to work the gate at the upcoming rodeo. He pictured himself taking tickets at the rodeo entrance and shaking hands with the folks coming in and without hesitation said he would love to.
WORKING THE GATE
As the new School Superintendent
in this little Texas town,
he thought it couldn’t hurt a thing
to get his name around.
So when the town folk asked him
if he would work the gate,
he gladly told them that he would.
he didn’t make them wait.
He dressed up nice
and took his place beside the ticket stand,
the Rodeo was just the place
to talk and shake some hands.
“Now the ticket jobs are taken,”
said the man who ran the show.
“We need you to work the gates
for the rough stock, don’t you know?”
There he stood for all to see
at the bucking shoots below,
and, when the cowboys nodded
he’d pull and let them go.
The coffee shop was all a buzz,
he arrived a little late.
But the stories there were all about
how the “Super” worked the gate.
And then there are other times when we see something we are very familiar with, but our mind suspends its rational thought and carries us off in another direction.
OBSERVATIONS FROM 30,000 FT.
I observed from a jet plane, clouds below
like miles and miles of drifted snow.
A polar icecap broken by lakes.
In the distance I could see
giant forms,
icebergs rising from the sea,
geysers billowing steam.
They are soft, I thought,
but feared descent.
These clouds looked hard, permanent.
