Ever heard the excuse "my dog ate my homework?"
Most times, that excuse is exaggerated. The story I'm going to tell you is not. So this weekend was Family Day at my daughter's university, so we decided to take the weekend and visit her.
This meant that my sixteen year old would be alone for Friday night and on his own for Saturday. He just got his license, so we were a little anxious about him driving himself to band practice and to school to catch the bus for a band competition the next morning, especially since they were leaving at 6:30 am.
He also was in charge of taking care of our neurotic dog and our cat with an attitude. Friday night, we called, and he answered that he had fed the animals and all was well. The next morning at 7 am, we called him. He calmly mentioned he had gotten to school safely and had cared for the animals.
We were so proud. When we got home on Saturday, we noticed in the hallway outside my son's room, there were school binders and papers scattered all over the floor from off the shelf. I cleaned them up and thought that maybe Andrew was searching for something and didn't have time to clean up.
When I walked into his room, my mouth fell open in shock. His room looked like it had been ransacked by thieves or perhaps spies searching for hidden codes. His desk was dumped and lying on the floor with everything on the desks scattered all over the room. His floor lamp lay across the desk with two of the legs missing. His television was toppled onto the floor, and his chair was upside-down and laying across the room. I looked at the outside of his door and saw claw marks running up and down the door with chunks of door missing from the bottom.
All I could think was, "What set my son off into a rage?" He seemed so calm that morning, and all I knew was that it had somehow involved my dog scratching the outside of his door.
My mind ran in a hundred different directions trying to solve this mystery. I love mysteries. My husband spoke reason and said that we didn't need to jump to conclusions or punishments until we heard his side of the story. At midnight, my son's bus came in so my husband met him at the bus and asked what happened in his room.
He immediately proclaimed, "Did someone break into my room?" When my son walked into his room, he dropped his Nintendo switch and moaned. He had not made this mess. He told us that early that morning, he had opened the door to leave and the cat slipped in. He also mentioned leaving his bedroom door slightly open. We filled in the blanks with this tale. The cat slipped into the house and proceeded to torture our dog, as she often loves to do.
I can picture our dog having enough and chasing her up the stairs to the second floor in which she squeezed through the gap in the door. Our dog, in hot pursuit, bounced against the door causing it to shut the cat in my son's room.
He proceeded to claw the door and pull until he was able to open the door. Once in the room, Armageddon broke out. The cat bounced onto the desk with our very large dog on his tail. Off the desk, ricocheting off of the lamp causing the lamp to fall over the desk and the legs to pop out, the cat continued it's escape route.
She bounced off the lamp in a perfect parkour move and onto the bench running behind the television, sending the television crashing onto the floor. Now in the carnage of demolished lego creations and furniture the cat flew through the room and into the hall. As our dog entered the hall, the cat tried to climb our shelf throwing books and papers onto the dog's head in great wrath. Undeterred, he attempted to climb the binders sending them flying in three directions.
At last, with one final attempt, the cat disappeared into safety while our dog felt extreme pride knowing that he had defended Andrew's room from that pesky cat. My son did not share in this dogly pride. This made me realize how quick I was to jump to conclusions. If my son's room was trashed, he must have done it. Meanwhile, he was crushed seeing his broken things scattered across his room.
How quick do we jump to conclusions involving others? She didn't wave to me therefore, she must not like me. He didn't shake my hand, so he must have something against me. She didn't tell me hello, so she must be a snob. Or maybe the truth of the matter is that she didn't see you or recognize you. It is hard to recognize people with all of these masks. Maybe he was dealing with issues you didn't know about, so he wasn't able to shake your hand. Maybe she is going through a really hard day and is fighting not to cry and that is why she couldn't pull the strength to tell you hi.
When we begin to give people the benefit of the doubt and a little grace, we may realize that it wasn't them in the wrong, but it was actually us jumping to conclusions.Have a great week high-heeled warriors!
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