BRENDA SAYS: "Something interesting was on the radio. One guy was talking about how when he was in high school he once climbed that famous rope, only to end up in the "Giant's Land" from Jack & the Beanstalk. A girl was on trying to debate him about whether he ended up with the hen that laid golden eggs or not. He told her the hen was already gone and there was no gold to be found by the time he got there but yet she still fought with him about it, saying maybe he didn't look in the right places and that men don't know how to find what's of the most worth or something like that. He tried to explain that it was his sophomore gym class for crying out loud and the last thing he expected or had been trained on was "Searching for treasure at the Giant's place." She just sighed arrogantly and said he must have never been a boy scout because they were always supposed to be prepared for anything. It turned out he had however actually been a boy scout but had never worked on a merit badge that would prep him for a tromp through Big Land. She just declared that it was her professional opinion that the boy scout program ought to include some modifications to better prepare boys in the future for a wider variety of life experiences. The debate went back and forth like a beautiful ping pong exchange for quite some time. Whatever logical response or fact the man would present, the woman would come up with some irrational outburst to make him look ridiculous when in fact she belonged in an asylum for the "professionally misunderstood" if you know what I mean. As a former asylum employee, I do know a bit about how you say what you must to get them there. But back to the debate, the poor man had been crushed most, not by the giant although it was a close call, but by the fact that after his personal encounter with the abundant man and his barely executed escape from approaching danger, when he finally got back down the rope, the teacher informed him he would be failing because his time up and down the rope was too slow. I could hear in the man's voice the pain that was still affecting him after all the years that had passed. When a teacher does not take your circumstances into consideration when looking over your performance, it can throw your life off course. My heart tingled a bit in sympathy for this man and as it turns out, the woman he was debating had been the wife of the gym teacher. It seemed everybody took the student's side and she had been bold enough to try to defend the teacher or at least poke holes in the student if nothing else. She had divorced the gym teacher and taken back her maiden name so that she could tour the country trying to discredit the student without being linked to the teacher who was partially responsible for the trouble that started it all but she missed her husband a great deal. My heart now tingled for her as well. Who should win this debate? I thought. The student had carried his struggles around like an overbearing sack of potatoes for all of these years and surely he should be recognized for his integrity so that he could move forward but this woman had loved her husband so much she had sacrificed her marriage to defend him. Unfortunately, things intensified. I was currently on the list of phone-a-judges for the radio show and they phoned me right then to see which of these people I would declare the winner of the debate. My heart raced and pounded, pounded and raced. Even without seeing these people, I felt like they had given me a glimpse into their soul. Tick, tock, tick, tock-I wish I could shut the clock up!!! Would truth triumph this day or a sacrifice in the name of love? Finally I knew. "You foolish woman!" I cried. "You had love and you gave it up for what? To prove something to the world. The world will forget your former husband soon enough, probably even sooner if you'd quit touring the country discussing him, but you will never forget what you lost. I'm sorry you have lost so much but it was a poor decision on your part and I must declare the student the winner." I've never forgotten that radio program and at times, it has been a catalyst for directions I should take in my own life. If my own decisions were broadcast upon the radio and I were to debate somebody, bringing all of my convictions with me, would I be declared the winner of the debate or the foolish woman? It's a question that goes with me wherever it is that I explore and it will never die but live on forever in my mind. The end."
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