Bold, Daring and Funny
My Child, the Stand Up Comic
In the newspaper this morning, a stand up comic was touted as being both bold and funny and people were urged to buy tickets for his show. Comics were often described as being bold and funny.
I’ve also watched TV actors that were bold and funny. Dick Van Dyke and Lucille Ball for instance, were famous for their crazy antics. But actors and comics make their living by being bold and funny. It’s something they practice and you expect it from them.
This made me think of something my youngest daughter did as a child. It wasn’t planned, or expected, but it sure was bold and hilarious. I’m sure there are people who still laugh and share it in group gatherings.
It was the day of her first communion, about 40 years ago. In our church, there were two aisles and three seating sections. The communicants were all seated in the first three rows of the smaller left section. Proud parents and siblings sat directly behind them, starting with row four.
The children, all 7 and 8 years old, were dressed in their finest. The boys looked handsome in their very first suits and ties. The little girls looked sweet and innocent in their white dresses and white shoes.
The priest droned on and on and I wasn’t really paying attention since I’d been through this ceremony twice before with my two older daughters. My thoughts were with my youngest daughter who was sitting two rows in front of us. I was so used to seeing her in either play clothes, or her school uniform.
“Oh, she looks so sweet and adorable in her communion dress! Okay, First Communion is almost over, then we’ll all go somewhere for a nice lunch.”
… and that’s when it happened. In the silence of a church full of people, amid a pause in the priest’s homily, came the unmistakable blast of a huge fart. On the wooden seat, it echoed and it was twice as loud as anything I had ever heard.
Just as I started to wonder where it came from … my sweet, adorable, daughter stood, and in one bold move, she turned around, hands on her hips, and with an angry scowl, faced the entire congregation and stared everyone down for a full minute.
I think it was a triple dog dare for anyone in the church to smile, laugh, or giggle. Then she turned back around and quietly sat down. If there was ever any doubt where the fart came from, that cleared it right up.
It was bold, daring and funny as hell ...
Surprisingly, it even silenced the priest for more than a few seconds and throughout the church, it was perfectly silent … not a snicker was heard.