Anyone living in Oklahoma from 1958 to 1988 would remember the antics, good natured humor, and gracious smile of our beloved Ho-Ho the Clown. He was a fixture, and in our family, he was a friend. Ed Birchall was the man behind the makeup, and though I saw him probably as many times without his big red clown nose and goofy smile, as I did with it, he was always "Ho-Ho" never Mr. Birchall. I don't know anyone who called him Mr. Birchall. Ho-Ho was more than just a silly character created for the kids to see and learn from on television; he visited churches, schools, hospitals, anywhere he could go in order to spread the word of God and minister to those who were in such great need of a spiritual lifting -- and good humor of course. Today's clowns have nothing on Ho-Ho; he was and is the King of Clowns in my opinion. I absolutely miss him.
Back in the late 60's and early 70's I remember Ho-Ho coming to our VBS (which stands for Vacation Bible School if you're not in the know!) Baptists, and I suppose other denominations of churches, host weekly spiritual church camps at their churches every summer, and from either 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. or perhaps 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at night, which happened after moms went to work, you could see and catch hundreds of bratty brats dressed in play clothes on the lawns of the churches drinking grape Kool-Aid and eating generic brand sandwich cookies. Honestly, to buy actual brand named Oreos cookies would have been out of the budget! My mom volunteered each year to help fix the snacks, teach the kids, sing songs, and be around the church to help others when necessary -- this is the environment I was raised in, and this was the place we could (every year without worrying about it) see Ho-Ho the Clown in PERSON!
Ed Birchall dressed, "slapped on his face" as he would say, and he drove down the streets of Oklahoma City to all the different churches to perform a little demonstration about lying and truth telling. He had a marvelous demonstration prepared, that when he showed it to you once you understood it for the rest of your life, but you didn't mind if he showed it to you every year, year after year, and every time he showed it you knew the answer but you listened anyway. He was telling you the truth about lying. Each time he performed the "experiment" or demonstration, he would ask the kids if the had ever told a lie. There wasn't a single time (not once) that any kid ever said they hadn't. We knew. We all knew. We all lied. He knew it too, and he said to us "Well, believe it or not, there have been times when Ho-Ho has lied too; and it's not nice, is it?" We would dutifully shake our heads, and in some cases we would even lower our faces - knowing we were needing to talk to someone about something right that minute before he went on with his little speech. We knew.
Well, Ho-Ho would produce a glass container full of ice cold water that he claimed he had just gotten from the kitchen of our very church. I believe Ed was a Catholic man, but he didn't mind drinking Baptist water from time to time; and he'd take a little drinking glass, pour some of the water out of the container and then take a long slow cool drink - - proving to us that the water was fine! Next he would talk about how truth is good, it cleanses us, it keeps us healthy, it works to help us have a better relationship with others, and that included our relationship with God. We could always benefit from telling the truth. He would say that the ice cold wonderful water represented, in this case, TRUTH.
Next Ho-Ho pulled out a vile of black ink from his pocket and showed it to us. He said, "this is ink. You use it to write with, you can use it to dye things, but mostly these days it's used to fill up ball point pens and since they have machines to do that, the one I have in my pocket will do another job. It will represent a lie. Just one little vile full of so many lies. That's why it's so black - - lies are dark. Lies aren't to be taken or said lightly, they are deep, dense, thick, and even the little ones are 100% lies, there is no 50% lie, no light lie, no white lie, just lies." He would ask us if we understood. We did.
Ho-Ho then opened the little tiny ink bottle that was only about an inch tall, and he showed us the dropper on the inside of the cap. He took one drop - - just one, and he put it into the big, tall, container of good, clean, pure, ice water - - TRUTH. He tainted truth. He did it deliberately, and he did it with intention. He even told us that he was purposely putting the ink into the water and explained that when we tell a lie we aren't doing it by mistake. We are voluntarily, on purpose, intentionally, with the design of knowing what we are doing - - we understood. What Ho-Ho did next was amazing. It was timed, it was calculated, and though we had seen this demonstration before, we still reacted. About the time he was finishing the demonstration a woman or a man would come into the theatre where we were seated, and wave at us kids, the person would turn to Ho-Ho and say "Say Ho-Ho, is that water? Can I have a drink of it?" Ho-Ho would turn to us and ask us - - what do you think? Should I pour a cup?
Without hesitation, without even thinking about it - - every last one of us kids screamed "NO! NO!" with compassion, with powerful conviction in our souls we didn't want that man or woman to take a chance of being poisoned. How can I say this without really upsetting a few of you? How can I say this without making someone "uncomfortable"; let me say it this way -- when you lie about another person you are literally giving the person you lied to (not the one you lied about) a drink of poisoned water - - water you just tainted. Water you just inked. Water you knew was purposely compromised. The person you lied about may never know you lied about them - - they may find out; but you poisoned a friend when you handed them the glass allowing them to drink your lie.
When Ed Birchall passed away in July of 1988 I remember I cried. I remember my friends sitting so close to me at VBS, holding hands praying that we would do our best to never lie again - - Ho-Ho didn't pass away, Ed Birchall passed away - - Ho-Ho is with us. He's always with us, and I will never forget this lesson as long as I live; I try so hard not to purposely poison my friends (or anyone else) and I think about the day I'll have lunch with Ho-Ho the Clown again; I bet he looks a lot more like a very young and healthy Ed than he does an aging gray haired bright-eyed, red-nosed clown, but you know what, that's OK. I think Heaven has enough humor in it to allow a slapping on of a face now and again - - and I'll laugh the same (if not harder) with every joke, every tease, every smile, every wink - - of my friend.
THANK YOU friend, thank you for a life time lesson that I can share.
No comments:
Post a Comment