There's A Difference Between…

Having a big head, and being big headed.

I'm a big guy. And. I have a massive cranium. A big head isn't a bad thing to have, it kind of matches the rest of my body, ya know? (Isn't it strange to see a big person with a little bitty head?)

My personality is pretty much permanently stuck on aw-shucks-while-shyly-kicking-the-ground. I've always known that no matter how fast I am, there's somebody faster. No matter how smart I am, there's somebody smarter. So forth and so on, etcetera, etcetera.

I do have a thing about reading, and despite my complaints on this blog about being pitiful at remembering peoples names, I have stored up quite a collection of useless trivia in said massive cranium in my 44 years.

So, over the years, at home, when someone wants to know something, they ask me. If I say, I don't know, you're gonna have to look that one up, I get these shocked and amazed looks from my family, like, "YOU don't know what such-and-such is?!" as if they were true believers in the Wizard of Oz and he'd just admitted that there was something he doesn't know.

I kind of like being the go-to guy for useless information. If I get to share it with others, then it's not quite so useless, know what I mean, butter bean?

It's like my ability to untangle tiny women's necklaces. Women love me when I can untangle a snake pit of those itty bitty chains in about 40 seconds flat. Even I don't know how I do it, but I sure wish I could make money doing it. It's a useless skill until someone needs it.

Therefore, after a while, even a big headed guy like me starts to get the big head. This is usually after a long string of helping people's understanding by whipping out some useless trivia, unraveling chain knots, and amazing people in the middle of conversation by knowing the unknowable without having someone or some situation bring me low and remind me that despite my size, I'm a small fish in a big ocean.

For several years, Lovely Wife and I taught the youth Sunday School at our church.

That was both good and bad. Bad, because I don't have a natural rapport with kids or teens. If you don't believe me, just ask my daughters, I still don't know how to talk to them. But this was good too, because my wife and I had to stretch our own minds and spirits to try to reach and teach these young people something about the Gospel that they could leave church with on Sunday and use in their lives from Monday through Saturday too.

If I'm good at one thing in my life, it's being able to break down even the most complex issue or subject into easy to understand parts and verbally show people how they fit together so that they understand it.

I'm all about plain talk, and although I like to expand my vocabulary and I know lots of $5 words, I don't use them much. They sound dumb in my southern, country, red-neck accent, but it helps with all the reading that I do.

For a while, our church would go and pick up a bunch of kids from a low income housing area and bring them to church. They were a rough bunch of kids, but my heart went out to them, because despite being pretty rough around the edges, they got up early, got dressed and came to church on Sundays. That effort meant that they were searching for something.

One Sunday in Sunday School, I was teaching about something, I don't remember what, and I thought I was really getting to them.

This one young kid in particular, looked to be about 13, kept a half-smile on his face through my whole talk.

Later, when we were wrapping the class up, he turned to one of his friends, and in a stage whisper said, "Hey! Doesn't he sound JUST LIKE that guy on King of the Hill?"

The whole class busted up laughing.

I laughed too. Hey, it WAS funny, even if it was me he was making fun of.

God, or life itself, has a way of thumping me on the head when I start to think too highly of myself.

That day it was a 13 year old boy. Things like that help keep me from being big headed.

There's not much I can do about having a big head.