Grandpa John’s Children’s Story (2) A true story.
The fourth grade Hopi Indian girl looked straight into my eyes and said stone faced, “You can’t sit there!” There we were, just the two of us, sitting across from each other at this long empty table and I was asked to leave.
Are the Hopi Indians different than we are, - - - - - - - - or are we the ones that are different?
Hopi children have more than one name. They use a different name in school than they do at home. They will have a different name when they grow up than they had when they were a child. When there’s a new Hopi baby born, the baby’s grandmother decides what the child’s name will be. The child won’t have a last name, Hopi Indians never use last names.
Sometime you children should count how many names you have. You may have other names like Sweetie, Bud, Honey, or Little Angel. Those are all nice names but how do you think you would feel if someone called you a pahana? Have you ever heard of the name pahana? The Hopi children have heard their parents say pahana many times. You see, Hopi Indians call us white people pahanas. Pahana isn’t a naughty name, its just the name the Hopi people call us white people. The children learn quickly from their parents that they shouldn’t trust a strange pahana.
Some of us pahanas went to The Hopi Mission School to work on their school building, to make it better. We banged our heavy hammers over and over on a new roof, while those poor children were inside, trying to study. Then, when their lunch bell rang, we went inside and stood right beside them. Yep, we stood right there in their lunch line, with a big fat smile sitting on our face. We were waiting in their line to get food, just like they were waiting. Since the children’s parents had taught them not to trust us strangers, they weren’t very friendly the first few days. On the second day, after the cook handed me my plate of food, I walked to the middle of a big long table, in the dinning area, where there was only one little Hopi Indian girl eating her lunch. I sat down right across from her, and just that quickly, she stopped eating and just looked at me. I finally asked her, “Is there something wrong?” and she said “You can’t sit there”. Hmm, was she afraid of me, or was she maybe angry about all the noise my hammer made while she was trying to study? There we were, just the two of us, sitting at this large empty table and I was asked to leave. I told her that I could move if I needed to. Then she told me that her friend, Amy was going to sit there. Well, this was really embarrassing. There must have been twenty or thirty empty places to sit at that table, but I chose to sit down in Amy’s seat. That little girl must have thought, “This pahana isn’t very bright!” I moved to a different table to finish my lunch. A few days later, another little Indian girl was just sitting there looking at me instead of eating. I thought to myself, “Oh, oh, here we go again.” But, before I could say anything, she said, “You are number one!” “WOW!” It wasn’t that long ago that I got kicked out of my seat from the next table over, and today I’m number one?” I asked her to repeat what she had said just to make sure I had understood correctly. Once again she looked straight at me and said, “You are number one!” I asked her “How do you know that I am number one?” She said, “I can see, you are number one and I am number two. You’re going to finish eating your food first and I will finish eating my food right after you’re finished.” So, suddenly I had become number one!
Hopi children play a lot of running games. At the Hopi Mission School, basketball is one of their favorites. By the way, I’m really happy for them, they just got a brand new gymnasium and won’t have to play basketball outside anymore.
Hopi children do live differently then we pahanas do. They live with their mother, father, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and grandparents. All these relatives belong to the mother’s clan. When a Hopi girl gets married, her husband comes to live with her and he also becomes a part of her mother’s clan.
The Hopi’s have many different, Kachina Dolls hand crafted from Cottonwood roots, which have to do with disciplining the children. In the Hopi clans, its up to the child’s uncle to discipline the child. That’s another long story by itself.
The young Indian girl knows that when she grows up, she will one day own her clan’s land, the springs that furnish their water supply, the house and the food. She will even own the seeds that they will plant in the fields each spring. It will be up to the girls in the clan to feed the children, weave baskets and make beautiful pottery. When the boy’s grow up, they will perform all the religious ceremonies and take care of hunting, farming and building houses.
My hope is that at least one of these little Hopi Indian girls grows up to be the mother of a clan of peace loving people, because in her younger years she had met a pahana she could trust!

My boss was really saying, “Before you come ask me, try solving supervisory problems yourself. Then, we’ll hold your results up to the light beams of my experience and evaluate your conclusion. There can be no growth for you in handling responsibilities if I always insert a ready answer into your brain.”
Wow! After I inhaled the full content of that strong leadership philosophy, I felt like I’d just been hit in the head with the rock of intelligence! Why, after that, I even practiced doing math without a pencil or paper! (That was before the calculator became a pocket necessity.)
I’ve since become more stupid and allowed the calculator and computer to take over my head assignments. My mental ability has shrunk to where I’m hard pressed to tell you what seven times eight is.
I need to rescue creative thinking by guiding my own mind through potential solutions to problems around me. Second, I need to see if my solutions disintegrate in the light beams of people who live closer to the rock of intelligence. I need to confirm that my thinking is solid. My fear is that my conclusions, if not challenged in the right light, could just be greedy and mostly worthless!
Half of us think below average and the other half live closer to the rock of intelligence. How else could average exist? What If we all thought on the same level and average would be just simply that low level average? What if there was no one closer to the rock of intelligence to ask?

Completely by accident, two offering plates meet in the center of the pew. Momentarily confused, they stop and just glare at each other, motionless. Finally, as if by cue, both retreat through gentle, understanding hands. While retreating, each offering plate is thinking, “Hey, that guy’s doing my job and trying to make me look bad. Why? Am I missing something? Am I not doing my job good enough? Maybe I’m not, when I was asked to consider accepting this responsibility, I just knew there were others that could do the job much better. It took me a long, long time to decide, but finally I agreed to accept and now this! Well, we’ll just see how long it will be before I accept another job with independent responsibilities. it’s a lot easier to remain anonymous in a group setting, why can’t there be more opportunities like that?
Like the two offering plates, its too easy to present excuses instead of results, hoping to sidestep responsibilities. If we’d just spend a fraction of our energy communicating with each other through verbal interchange, we might have fewer wrinkles on our brow.
As we look into our future, the visible challenge is for each of us to study the list of responsibilities required to keep this good old world in motion and identify where we might fit. For this exercise, no used excuses are allowed and a personal assessment of anticipated failure will be disregarded.
What if someone asks you if you really take your job assignment seriously all the time and if not, why not?
This might seem like an unpopular conversation starter, but it is a very important part of surviving in an environment where our paycheck is king. A lot of people around us are willing to help, we just need to tell them when and how!
Sidestepping responsibilities will take the swing out of your gait.

I looked around and there was a multitude of people, every shape and size, collected inside this humongous building. This affair was obviously much more important then I had guessed, attracting this kind of an attendance. Was I in my right mind to come and be willing to elbow a portable hole through this massive crowd? Suddenly, I noticed some brand new dimes on the floor at my feet. Then I noticed new dimes scattered at other places on the floor and between the benches. “What kind of good fortune is this?“ Everyone seemed to be busy stooping and scooping. But I noticed something strange about this whole event. Everyone stopped scooping when they had exactly three dollars worth of those shiny, new dimes. So, I collected my three dollars worth and quit also.
Yes, of course it was a dream, but what does it mean?

(Sunday Devotional}
How does a fly land on the ceiling? Do you think it does a sudden, simple maneuver? With a quick flip, does it extend its landing struts straight up and do a graceful touchdown? Perhaps it dives into a full loop directly below the ceiling, screeching to a hobbling halt at the peak of its loop! Maybe the fly prepares for an upside down landing by flying towards the ceiling upside down and then suddenly, applying its air brakes!
I believe temptation appears as aimless as the flight of a fly when we are first aware of it. Initially temptation appears to be twisting and turning as it approaches. It seems foreign and awkward, aiming for nothing in particular. Temptation leaves us convinced we’re not the devil’s target. Then seemingly with very little effort and when the timing is just right, “Bingo,” the devil slings it at us and temptation extends its landing struts full out and lands!
We know God gives us the freedom to choose, but how does this fit with not yielding to temptation? God set those of us who believe in him within certain boundaries. While Satan tempts us to step outside those boundaries with his attractive temptations, outside of Christ’s kingdom, to follow him.
When we worship the many different gods of this world, we are stepping outside God’s playing court. The devil’s temptations aren’t announced with a drum roll and amplified fanfare. I believe his temptation can land like a fly, anywhere, totally unexpected and without warning.