Choosing Sides

Although I refer to growing up in a town, it was actually a village, which even then was stretching it – the population was shy of 300. Today, they have it right, and it is now officially a Hamlet, with a population between 300 and 400. For the ‘town’ to still exist is an accomplishment, as in the past 60 years many of the small ‘towns’ have disappeared. I will continue to use ‘town’ when relating any events that happened there. Because the majority of school pupils were bussed in from their farms, there were not many kids that actually lived and played in the town. Any time that we played a game that consisted of teams, the normal procedure was to pick the teams. I hated this procedure, as I was usually one of the last picked. Normally the two most popular or best players would get to be Team Captains.  Everyone would be standing around in a group, knowing pretty well exactly the order each was going to be chosen. Even knowing this order, deep down I would hope that perhaps “this time”, something magical would cause me to be moved up in the order of picking. As it happened so often, it was not really an embarrassment, and I am sure none of the other kids gave it much thought - except those that were still standing, waiting with me to be picked. I know that today there are still kids ‘standing and waiting and hoping for the magic to happen. Hey – Team Captains - put everyone’s name in a hat - pick your teams that way! I am sure being one of the last picked, has had an effect on how I dealt and still deal with life as an adult. Through my life I have, on many occasions, been an ally of someone who I felt was not being treated as an equal, and was being ‘one of the last to be picked’. So – although at the time it hurt, it gave me the compassion to understand the pain of others, and to try to help.