Today, I got to serve at Cerner, a
large company that helps young adults get experience in the field of computers
and technology. They had a 3-hour event outside full of games and food and
fellowship.
There were plenty of servers
working this event. So many, that my only job was “pop and water”. Since there
was free beer there, my job was really only to watch the ice melt on top of the
pop and then put more ice on top of it. 3 hours of watching ice melt!
While I was working hard at
watching Coke and Mountain Dew get cold, I also found time to people-watch. Out
of the 500 employees that came out to this everything-free event, about 490 of
them were between 21-25 years old. There were so many young men that were tall,
bearded, and wearing plaid shirts. Then, there were the women with colored hair
and skinny jeans. No matter how much effort we put in to try to be different,
we all really end up alike.
There were groups of young men playing catch
with a football that flew my way a couple times. I got my chance to shine as I
spiraled the ball back to them and did my victory touchdown sign. That took
about 20 seconds off my 3-hour shift. Then, there were those huge balls you
jump in and run inside like a hamster. I want those so bad for my property but
my dream-squashing kids would pop them - $500 down the drain in 5 seconds flat.
But then I spotted this little
gem....
You know this game. I didn’t
google how old it is but it at least dates back to the Grease movie, right? It
is nicknamed the Strong man’s Game. The player hits the lever and a puck flies
up with the goal being to hit the bell at the top. The harder you hit the
lever, the higher the puck goes. After making sure my pop was safe, cold, and
lonely, I watched the men and women play this “game”. The only reward is to
hear the bell ring at the top of the tower but there is something very
intriguing about this game that keeps people coming back to it and has kept it
popular among carnivals for decades. On the surface, it looks rather boring and
useless. What exactly is accomplished here? The only goal is to hit it hard
enough to hear the bell. So??
Here is what I observed and
learned during my people/pop-watching. The men and women were consistent. One
by one, a woman would hit the lever with the mallet and the number would go up
to a certain number. She would hit it again and again but only got weaker with
lower numbers. Even with cheering and encouragement, they never pounded the
hammer more than 3 times.
Then, there were the men. One by
one, they each went up. Their first slam of the mallet never hit the bell but
here is where they differed from the women. They never gave up. Each man stayed
and kept hitting the lever over and over while the puck ascended higher and
higher until it hit the bell. No man gave up. Not one. Once the bell was hit,
he swung the hammer with a smile and pride. There was no need to keep hitting
it anymore because the goal was accomplished. He had reached as high as he
could go.
This was totally a Theology of the
Body lesson for my teens!! I repeat over and over again to the girls….”Raise
your bar and the man will rise to the challenge.” Too many women lower the bar
so every man can hit the bar with the first try. But the woman who has her bar
set high attracts the men to her. That is where the challenge is. How many men
would find the game fun if anyone who hit that lever were able to ring the
bell? Once the word got out about how easy that game is, no one would play it.
It would be boring and unrewarding.
I ran this blog through my head as
I people-watched this game. Girls need to be that bell. Girls need to raise
their standards and men will start lining up to try to reach that bell. Sure,
some men might give up but none of them did who chose to play that game today.
If a young man didn’t think or want or care to ring that bell, they just didn’t
play at all. The type of young men interested in my daughter are the type that
see the high bar and don’t walk away. They stay and rise to the challenge. They
stay until they hear the bell – the wedding bells.
And as I ran this analogy through
my head, someone else was pouring ice over my pop. I only had one job……..
