A Grave Injustice Indeed

I have suffered a great and cruel social injustice this evening, dealt to me by the neighborhood hoodlums. We have had the most enjoyable past two days in Seattle of seeing white snow covering the lawns, walkways, sidewalks, roads and vehicles. A beautiful sight. Last night, I waited until enough white had accumulated on the ground to be worthy of the title "snow" and then went and grabbed my friend Linda from Indonesia who had never before seen snow. The look on her face when she saw snow for the first time in her life was definitely a Kodak moment. Her first response? She went out and built her very first snowman. Now, please do remember, we are in Seattle. It's not like home where you can build a snowman as tall as the family van parked in the driveway, or rivaling in height the drainpipes alongside of the house. No. This snowman was a little guy. He came up to just past my knees (which isn't all that tall, I admit said the short girl). But, he was still a snowman. In fact, as I walked past him this morning on my way to class, I patted him on the head and thought to myself that we should be sure to give him a carrot nose and stick arms before the end of the day. I was definitely getting attached to our little guy. And, by early afternoon, when all of the snow had pretty much melted, our little snowguy was the only one on the block still standing. By late afternoon, the snow started to fall again. Oh, frabjous day! By 6pm, we had sufficient (in Seattle measurements) amounts of white covering the ground that I went outside and played in the snow by myself, cause I couldn't convince anyone else to play with me... but it was still fun. While I was out there, I realized what a poor aim I am when I hit everything (including the neighbor’s house) but the window that I was aiming at. Oh, well. And, as the snow kept accumulating and my snowballs kept flying haphazardly, our snowman stood tall and proud. So, imagine my shock and horror when, after dinner, I was talking with Sayuri and we walked to the front door to gaze at the whiteness of it all, plan our snowball war that I had challenged Linda with tomorrow afternoon, and look at the snowman, only to find that our snowman was stolen. Yes, stolen! I was in mid sentence with Sayuri when I cried out, "Sayuri! Our snowman is stolen!!!!!!" All she could say was "HUH??" We both stood there in shock for quite some time. Then, I cocked my head to gaze through the window down the street, and wouldn't you know it, but two houses down I saw all of the neighborhood kids and OUR SNOWMAN! Yup, the kids had stolen it! So, with that, I went on a rampage. You see, snow is a precious thing in Seattle. And, kids or no kids, that was our snowman! I know that we are supposed to uphold our testimony in this neighborhood -- all of the houses around us know that we are a Christian outreach home. But, this was an offense not to be borne! I yelled out to Hannah (from Korea) who was back in the kitchen, and she and I stormed onto the front porch and demanded that the kids bring our snowman back. They didn't. Instead, we found that our snowman had taken on some odd characteristics like having a pumpkin for a head. And then, as if this wasn't enough, these neighborhood hoodlum came over and tracked up all the rest of our beautiful snow in the front lawn (the parts that I had been oh, so careful, not track up in my own playful romp this afternoon to save for the other ladies of the house). And then, they had the audacity to proceed to steal the snow off of the cars parked in front of our house!!!! Now, please understand me. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE KIDS! My dad is a pediatrician. Our house is always full of children. I worked directly in children’s ministry for seven years. But this?! Never before have I seen children cross the border of that which is morally right into that which is morally wrong by stealing their neighbor’s snowman! I have been greatly offended. Hannah and I have talked about going over early tomorrow morning before the kids all wake up to reclaim our stolen property. But, rather than be a cold-hearted pharaoh, I think that we’ll just let them keep it and pray for more snow tonight. Then, in retaliation, Linda and I may knock on doors and challenge these hoodlums to an all-out snowball war tomorrow afternoon. We shall see....