Imitating the Right Walk

Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas

Remembering St. Thomas Becket

1 John 2:5-6

This is the way we may know 
that we are in union with him:

whoever claims to abide in him 
ought to walk just as he walked.

This line from the first Letter of John reminded me of an old sketch by Cartoonist Jules Feiffer:

Ever since I was a little kid I didn’t want to be me.  I wanted to be Billie Widdleton.  And Billie Widdleton didn’t even like me.

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I walked like he walked.  I talked like he talked.  I signed up for the high school he signed up for---

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Which was when Billie Widdleton changed.  He began to hang around Herby Vandeman.  He walked like Herby Vandeman.  He talked like Herby Vandeman.
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He mixed me up!  I began to walk and talk like Billie Widdleton walking and talking like Herby Vandeman.

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And then it dawned on me that Herby Vandeman walked and talked like Joey Haverlin, and Joey Haverlin walked and talked like Corky Sabinson.

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So here I am walking and talking like Billie Widdleton’s imitation of Herby Vandemans’s version of Joey Haverlin trying to walk and talk like Corky Sabinson.

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And who do you think Corky Sabinson is always walking and talking like?  Of all people---dopey Kenny Wellington---That little pest who walks and talks like me.

I smile to myself because it is still so true!  I mean…true of me…right now!  How likely am I to walk like HE walked with so many Billies and Herbys and Joeys and Corkys attracting my attention!

Balancing the scales with enough Thomases and Marys and Stephens and Elizabeths will take attention and more than a little help from my friends!

…oh that another may walk like me because I walk like Him!