Over the holiday weekend I witnessed it once again.\u00a0 It\u2019s been around seemingly forever, and yet it still can make me uncomfortable.\u00a0 Obviously, it makes many uncomfortable; otherwise, society wouldn\u2019t struggle dreaming up creative ways to avoid it.\u00a0 We instead label the struggle and scheming as something else… something that sounds better… but something it\u2019s not…<\/p>\n
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One by one, the kids lined up.\u00a0 The boys to the left, the girls to the right.\u00a0 The oldest maybe 13, the youngest near 5.\u00a0 Time to choose.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI pick you!\u201d<\/em> said the first captain, after quickly yet carefully assessing the potential prowess of the 20 plus peers before him.\u00a0 \u201cI pick Jackson!\u201d<\/em> said the next.\u00a0 And so the process continued until all were chosen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The frail little 5 year old was last.\u00a0 The look on her face revealed little from a faraway glance.\u00a0 I wondered how she felt being chosen last.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chosen last.\u00a0 Even worse?\u00a0 Not chosen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Therein lies the problem.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s hard and often uncomfortable.\u00a0 When people are selected for various activities or honors, someone is always chosen last or not even chosen.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like it on \u201cSurvivor.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t like it in Saturday\u2019s whiffle ball game.\u00a0 Witnessing the one chosen last makes me uncomfortable.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My sense is that such discomfort is shared by more than me.\u00a0 No ethical one appreciates another inherently deemed as \u201cthe worst of these.\u201d\u00a0 So the question is:\u00a0 what are we to do?\u00a0 What are we to do with the one with the perceived less ability?\u00a0 Less prowess?\u00a0 Hardest circumstances?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Those questions have historically been challenging for society to wrestle with.\u00a0 We either ignore the discomfort \u2014 or in a currently increasing mantra, we work to keep that selection process from ever happening.\u00a0 Allow me to illustrate…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When prom was hosted by Kaynor Tech High School in Waterbury, Connecticut this month, the principal of the school altered the selection process for king and queen.\u00a0 Proclaiming that everyone deserves \u201cthe same opportunity,\u201d Principal Lisa Hylwa \u2014 rather than allowing students to vote for the winner \u2014 had prom participants instead put their names in a box; the teenage royals were then drawn at random.\u00a0 Yes, a random king and queen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to Hylwa, a chosen<\/em><\/strong> king and queen could potentially \u201cspark jealousy, mean behavior, or bullying.\u201d\u00a0 The random drawing was, in her opinion, wiser.\u00a0 In other words, the principal desired to keep the selection process from ever happening.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now as admitted at the onset of this posting, it\u2019s uncomfortable to witness the one chosen last or the ones never chosen.\u00a0 Yet it seems equally painful (and reeking of a very stiff, political correctness)<\/em> to suggest that the election process must cease to exist.\u00a0 The reality is that not all persons are qualified for prom king, not all politicians can win an election, and not every basketball player will be selected in the NBA draft.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It seems to me that there is an increasingly developing mindset that each of us should be so qualified \u2014 that we should have this \u201cfair shot\u201d or opportunity at all.\u00a0 The challenge is that the full manifestation of that logic is absent of the truth that we are each created with different gifts; we aren\u2019t all equal.\u00a0 We each have different skills, different gifts, varied intensities of ambition, work ethics, and God-given abilities.\u00a0 To ignore them \u2014 and eliminate any process of election \u2014 seems equally uncomfortable.\u00a0 Man can\u2019t control something God created.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Friends, I don\u2019t have all the answers; don\u2019t conclude I feel that I do.\u00a0 My strong sense is simply that this idea that all must have equal opportunity is creating an entitlement sense that lacks the wisdom to recognize individual gifting.\u00a0 To eliminate the selection process \u2014 and thus any voting of kings and queens \u2014 is unwise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n FYI:\u00a0 My youngest son was a part of Saturday\u2019s whiffle ball game.\u00a0 Of the 20 plus kids, he was one of the last chosen.\u00a0 Did I mention he has Down syndrome?\u00a0 Yet did he grimace and fret as it neared the end of the selection process?\u00a0 Was he upset about being picked close to last?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That adorable 10 year old jumped up and down, eager to play, thankful to be a part of a team.\u00a0 He has many gifts \u2014 most not exhibited on a base path.\u00a0 He knows that.\u00a0 Hence, if we could all be a little more like him…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n (P.S.\u00a0 He does have a great arm.)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Respectfully,<\/p>\n AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the holiday weekend I witnessed it once again.\u00a0 It\u2019s been around seemingly forever, and yet it still can make me uncomfortable.\u00a0 Obviously, it makes many uncomfortable; otherwise, society wouldn\u2019t struggle dreaming up creative ways to avoid it.\u00a0 We instead label the struggle and scheming as something else… something that sounds better… but something it\u2019s … <\/p>\n