Our early morning Friday prayer group was kneeling in a circle on the stage of the chapel, sharing prayer requests. Chaplain Paddy looked down at his son, kneeling beside him. "Aidan has a spelling bee today," he said.
"Who will pray for Aidan?" asked the day's coordinator.
"I remember the word I missed in the spelling bee," said Kara. "It was 'ninety.'"
"I got out on 'monstrous,'" said Bob.
"Mine was 'inception,'" said Dave.
After a good chuckle over the memories, we were back to sharing prayer requests.
It struck me like a brick: Have you noticed that the one you missed stays in your head forever? There is something about our public mistakes that burn their own special brand into the hides of our memories. Spelling bees offer, for some children, a moment of triumph. But for most others, they are a reminder that "you are just one of the many, the imperfect, those unable to win. Ever."
Monstrous.
Why is "the one you missed" the one that gets your attention, the one that carries the gravitas of the moment and the memory into forever?
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