A Little Different

Last week on Wednesday some of the young people who are our neighbors went out to interview another neighbor named Joe King. Joe is the founder and director of the Dirty Dozen Hunting & Fishing Club. Joe has lived in Indianapolis his whole life. He's worked in insurance. In his retirement he and his friends, all African-American men, have started this club. They spend time with young people and their families. They go on trips together, they fish together, they hunt together and they talk together.

Joe talks about how when he was growing up he used to go out to Fall Creek and watch the men fishing every evening after work. "That was my television," he says. He learned about life standing in the creek, watching his neighbors fish, hearing them swapping stories and jokes. He feels, he says, "an obligation," to the creek. He says, "I talk to the creek and I tell it that I will not forsake it." There is no one I have met who knows more about what has happened to Fall Creek. Back in those years -- over 60 years ago, people got a lot of meals out of Fall Creek. That doesn't happen too often anymore (some worry about the safety of the food coming out of those water).

But Joe wants to simply share with others the gift that he has received. The young people interviewed (on camera) Joe on the porch of his house. One of the young people interviewing him is named Cameron. Cameron lives just a couple of blocks from Joe, but they had never met before. During the interview Joe asked Cameron a question that resulted in Cameron telling Joe that he felt like he is "different" from other kids...that he doesn't feel like he belongs. After the interview, Joe put his arm around Cameron and walked him to the other end of the porch and told him that there was nothing in the world wrong with "being different." Joe told him that he himself is different and that this is a good and holy thing.

I thought later about how Cameron now has a friend, and neighbor, that knows that he feels he is a little different, and that this neighbor not only knows that but thinks that it's great. I hope that in those times when Cameron is feeling a little down that he can walk over to Joe's house and even if Joe isn't there he can remember that conversation and be encouraged. Such gifts are rarely counted and rarely known - but are infinitely valuable.