CHOOSING SIDES

The summer after going through the third grade in American Falls, Idaho, our family made the move to Long Beach, California, where in September of that year I entered into the fourth grade at Lincoln Elementary.

This move brought about many life changing experiences, one of which was that, instead of having playgrounds of grass and dirt, the playground at Lincoln Elementary was completely covered with asphalt with the exception of the little fenced off area reserved for the kindergarten kids. In American Falls even the outdoor basketball courts had been dirt with patches of grass.

Lincoln Elementary also had an afternoon activity program which was conducted by the Recreational Department of the City of Long Beach. I spent most of my afternoons enjoying the activities provided by this program. Actually, during the fourth grade I mainly spent my two hours after school playing kickball with an occasional excursion to the tether ball ring. Our afternoon kickball games always started with the laborious task of choosing up sides.

There was no way that the activity coordinators could leave this task up to the eager kickers. If they were left without supervision the ‘good kickers’ somehow always ended up on the same team. When the coordinator lined the kids up and counted 1, 2, 1, 2 … the ‘good kickers’ always somehow had an ‘average kicker’ on both sides of them in line. (The ‘bad kickers’ always sat at the picnic type tables and did crafts or played board games)

The coordinators continually had to create new ways of choosing teams in order to try to keep some sort of competitive balance. With all their creative attempts the ‘good kickers’, even when on opposite teams, found a way to keep their friends ‘safe’ by missing catches and letting balls escape them.

I don’t think these experiences permanently scarred me or any of the ‘kick ballers’, but I do know that throughout my life I have been very aware that the phenomena of ‘choosing sides’ exists in almost all facets of our lives.

Tacitus, a Roman historian, who in his Histories chronicled the tumultuous times of the Empire during the years 69 and 70 of the Common Era, said “When a ruler once becomes unpopular all his acts, be they good or bad, tell against him.”

In the political arena we find that strategic statements made by candidates as they vie to gain their party’s nomination become fodder to fuel the flames of fury which engulf them as they enter the general elections. Once a winner is determined, it will matter little whether their decisions are sound or silly, all those who were (2’s) when the choosing was finished will find nothing but fault in all that is said and done by the (1’s). If the results were reversed the negativity would still be a consuming constant.

When a long time union is dissolved by divorce or separation, sides are immediately chosen usually along the lines of common DNA. From the moment the decree is written, right and wrong are no longer matters of reality, but one of relationship. Long time friendships are ended and the rotten (2) suddenly becomes someone whose reputation should be trashed and muddied, no matter how sterling their character was previously. In areas of disputation (1) will always carry the day.

Adherents of religious beliefs, who weekly read and listen to words of love and common kinship, when encountering one of another belief will invariably seek to be right rather than righteous. In any disputed doctrine the (1’s) will always find shortcomings in the doctrines and ritual of the (2’s) and visa-versa.

Economic social groups find the sides they choose to be surrounded by are as distinct as the bottom line on their tax returns. The wealthy (1or 2) continually talk of the poor (1or 2) as if they were all lazy and indolent underachievers, while the poor (1or 2) are sure that most people of wealth (1 or 2) have what they have because of some accident of birth or because they were willing to sacrifice principle for profit.

We could go on citing examples of how we all choose sides depending on the schools we have attended, sports teams we support, the relative beauty of the dominant pigmentation of our skin, how high on the hill we live, the country of origin of our ancestors and even the correctness of the age we are currently passing through contrary to the dismalness of another’s years. It seems as if we are constantly lining up to choose sides. If I have been chosen to be a (1) I will almost always walk contrary to your (2). If you think of yourself as a (1) you will most often see me as a (2) to be walking a crooked path.

Most of us have dreams about living in a utopian society where we will all live in peace, but most of us secretly feel that this will only happen when you desert your side and make an effort to be more like me and mine.

The apostle John in his first epistle gave the following counsel. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” “Herein is our love made perfect, that ye may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4: 20, 7, 8, 17)

So there it is, it matters little if thee become like me or I become like thee, it is imperative that we both choose to become like He.