A Wallfower on Mount Everest (Included: A Tribute to Guys)

Yesterday was a great day in the history of Cassie Walters. Yesterday I scaled my Mount Everest. Yesterday I found out that I can mingle with other human beings in a human being-ish manner…and survive. And be happy. This is a very good thing.

Yesterday was the lake party for college students at our church. And against all my hermitical inclinations, I went. I thought I might chicken out and go home after church because of a sudden onslaught of what I call the “social headache” a queer ailment I deal with whenever there are too many people around and I feel out of my league. I’ve left so many of these sort of gatherings so discouraged that I didn’t want to try any more.

But the good news is that God doesn’t desert His kids, and He changes them when they aren’t looking for it. I went to the lake party with my history of wallflowerism and left with confidence that even wallflowers sometimes sprout tendrils and reach for the sun. We played spoons and Frisbee and ate Mr. Hammond’s delicious brisket. I stayed out of the shell the whole time and managed to meet and talk to a number of people, and really appreciate them.

While on the subject of people, I have to give some sort of tribute to guys. Guys in general, God-following guys in particular. I don’t hang around very many guys very much of the time, but in a culture that attacks masculinity I guess somebody (in this case, me) needs to stand up and say that you guys are great.

You make much funnier jokes than most girls, you don’t tend to form clicks like girls do, and you can be really encouraging when you want to be. You have confidence that lends a certain amount of stability to the human race. I know girls complain all the time about how guys are clueless and don’t seem to remember a lot of things females deem vital to social existence…such as birthdays and anniversaries and what she was wearing the night they first went out…but that’s ok.

It’s nice if guys manage to get a handle on those things too, but basically I realize that most of you are too busy locating things without asking for directions, building contraptions that make our world run, and figuring out how to blaze a trail into the world where no other guy has actually gone before, whether spiritually, physically, or mentally. And I, as a girl, am personally ok with that. (My apologies to any girls who like to do all those things too, I’m just trying to make a point). Thanks guys, for being yourselves.

A lot of people were going around in the boat on the lake but I was satisfied with hanging around the deck on the porch swing and jumping off the roof into the water. The running leap…the sensation of flying and the plunge into the murky depths of Lake Cherokee...The moderate rush from jumping off the roof diminished the repulsive feeling of sludge at the bottom of the lake. I got more microbiotic friends out of the lake water than I ever wanted, but then, nothing can be too bad after swimming in the Dneipr river south of Chernobyl. All the locals say it’s no big deal. I haven’t grown an extra arm yet or anything.

The day was fine, and the breeze after a dip in the lake on a warm day…heavenly. I treaded water for maybe ten minutes maximum and then got out and just enjoyed the breeze and the porch swing. I felt so relaxed after treading water that I could have gone to sleep. I thought I should try treading water in public more often, seeing as it’s so therapeutic for the disturbed soul. I came up with an idea involving the church baptismal but decided it wasn’t one of my more brilliant ones.

By the end of the day I felt like the old me had melted and drained away like so many saccharine ice pops, and the sun had left me feeling either slightly delirious or maybe just relaxed to a normal human level. Dare I assume that I’m beginning to feel happy inside my own skin and at ease with this whole group of nice people?