Friday, February 13, 2009

Dear Punk,

Dear Punk kid who stole my son's Yu-Gi-Oh Cards,

You and I both know what you did. You told me everything I needed to know when you avoided eye contact with me. My son is a very trusting kid. Because you guys were hanging out and having fun at the comic store, he naively assumed that he could leave his deck on the table while he left for a few minutes. The emptying of the pockets and the backpack was fairly impressive, but you and I know that you stashed it where it would not be found. I know you think my son is some rich kid from the suburbs, but as I type this, he is doing extra chores to pay for the eight dollar card that he had in his possession a total of 10 minutes.

When you took that card from him, you took away something else. You see, my son (much like his mom) is a bit of a square peg that never totally fits into the round holes carved out at school. When he goes to those tournaments, he is completely free to be himself and relax with other kids who are also square pegs. He will still enjoy going to these tournaments, but now that's one more place he will have to have his guard up. You taught him a valuable lesson that only experience can teach, but still...

I want you to know something else. We went out to dinner tonight. My husband usually says the prayer for the family, but tonight my son asked if he could pray. Guess who he prayed for? That's right...he prayed for you -- that God would forgive you as he has forgiven you. Do you know what I'm going to pray for tonight? I'm going to pray that every time you steal another kid's cards, you get caught. I want you to get caught stealing in a small way so that you stop while you're ahead. It's a much bigger deal when you move on to bigger things like old ladies' purses and cars. The authorities frown on those things and you might even wind up spending some time in jail, and how suck would that be?

Even though my son is convinced that you took his card, he will still be your friend and he will continue to pray for you. He really gets the "love the sinner but not the sin" concept. But don't be surprised if he wants to talk to you about Jesus. You might want to listen.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is he doing extra chores because you're making him pay for the card he so irresponsibly left behind, or is he desperately wanting another one and begging for opportunities to make extra cash?

Beth said...

My roommate from college had a baby today...she named him Cameron. Hopefully he'll turn out as cool as yours. :)

Candy said...

ok katdish, I lived in the Lego era. What is a Yu-Gi-Oh Card? Is wrong to pray for the little punk to have guilt up the wah-zoo?

And for the record, I gave birth to three wonderful square pegs.

Ryan B said...

Hey Katdish. This is a wonderful post. Your son seems like a pretty cool kid. I don't think anyone is a round peg that fits that whole. Personally, I'm probably a "t" block from tetris. Being different makes us cool. I'm sorry. I don't even know what to say. This post just touched my heart.

Sherri Murphy said...

Okay. Gimme the kid's address! Do you want me to go to his house and stomp my little foot on his sticky little fingers?

I look like a minor so I wouldn't do much hard time.

Tell Cameron Smurf said he's the coolest square I've ever seen!
(well, I've never seen him either, but you get what I'm saying.)

♥ Kathy said...

My son loves Yu-Gi-Oh. I hate that your son's card was stolen. Hopefully the kid that stole it will learn something from your son.


Happy Valentine's Day :)

Nick the Geek said...

wow sometimes parenting can be totally awesome and sucktacular in the same breath.

I really hate stealing. It offends me on very primal levels. Interestingly last time I opened up to someone about this they were robbing the church blind and the person sat there agreeing with me the whole time.

Helen said...

Katdish, I am so sorry that your son's card was stolen. I don't even know what to say. I, too, hope the kid gets caught before he moves up to felonies....

katdish said...

Thanks, guys. Being a kid was difficult. Watching your kids go through hard lessons while avoiding the temptation to rescue them is hard, too.

And Nick, I agree with your opinion on stealing. I've always felt that if someone would steal from someone else, there's not much they wouldn't do. There is no honor among thieves.

Stephanie Wetzel said...

Oh, I feel so bad for Cameron. And it's not fun to see your kids gain that kind of wisdom.

On a lighter note, I'm impressed at how in a serious post you managed to work in "how suck would that be?"

JML said...

I'm proud you didn't rescue him. I don't know jack about parenting, but I know that when I was a kid, when my parents intervened, I either hated them for it, or I didn't learn from it. That said, I think it's great that you pray he gets busted. I come from the philosophy that some people just need to be busted and quite frankly, need the crap beat out of them to make them change. We call them slow learners. Tell Cameron I think he's rad, (not that he gives a rat about some internet guy :) ) take care!!!