If you know what’s good for you, you won’t visit old Owen. He’s known as the meanest man in these parts. He’s likely to shoot at you. You’ll know his place when you come to a gate bordered by barbed wire.
Owen’s neighbor had my welfare at heart. His warning posed a problem. The sales supervisor repeated many times, Never miss a house. You might just miss a person who needs your book. Your visit could be the key to a changed life.
I pulled my old Studebaker Champion up to Owen’s gate. I was shocked by the many signs on the gate and fence posts. MEAN DOG, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK, STAY OUT, I HATE SALESMEN, TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED. Tin cans, empty bottles, and other noise makers dangled from wire. Should I risk entering the fortress? Why not?
Owen was lying on the porch sound asleep. His feet were propped up on a rusty milk can. His shabby clothes had not seen soapy water in many a day. The town barber had not see Owen in years.
He awoke when I cleared my throat for the third time. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and had surprise written on his face. I almost drove past your place, but I figured I’d miss the chance to make a new friend. My name is Larry. And yours? Owen made no reference to the signs. Instead he began telling me his story. He was wounded in the Army. After his mother died, his father raised him. He never married. He cared for his father until his father lost the cancer battle. He had no chance to pour his heart out to another person. He begged me to stay the rest of the day, but I needed to sell books. I gave Owen a book sensing that he had little means.
I did not see a gun. His tone of voice was kind. I didn’t see a mean dog. He did not threaten to call the police. I guessed that the signs merely protected him from further pain.
I recently began delivering Meals on Wheels. The elderly recipients didn’t have signs on their doors. When they learned to trust me the invisible signs came down. We had what Dr. James J. Lynch called dialogue. Dialogue is where a person shares his or her joys and sorrows, hopes and dreams, and all that life means with another person who in turn shares the same. Too many people are suffering from communication disorders while being treated for communicable disorders. To have a friend is therapy that Aleve cannot touch. Children live in homes surrounded by toxic talk that carries over into adulthood.
Want a rewarding experience? Find an Owen in your neighborhood. Listen with both ears. Be interested. Care. You’ll find joy in your life. This was Jesus’ method that people remember thousands of years after He tramped this dusty sod.