Blog 296 – 05.17.2016

Yesterday, I wrote about pointing. Today I would like to spend a little time on the subject of poking. On Facebook there is a thing you can do called poking. I confess I am a bit baffled by this and I have tried to read and understand the explanation offered online. You poke someone and they poke you back, then what? Oh and you are offered this long suggested list of people you might poke.

I can see all kinds of possible problems from this poking process. As a boy I saw several fights developed from people poking at one another. In the Wild West, per the popular Western series Lonesome Dove pretty and sometimes not especially pretty women for a price would sell a service that they called “a poke” to Cowboys who themselves were often called cowpokes.

Many of you know that I was a churchman for many years. I have not been for a number of years and agree with Don Williams’ country lyrics:

“I don’t believe that heaven waits for only those who congregate. I like to think that God is love. He’s down below. He’s up above. He’s watching people everywhere. He knows who does and does care. And I’m an ordinary man. Sometimes I wonder who I am. But I believe in love.”

I say that by way of introduction to a church poke joke that some of you might find offensive but I find very funny and hope many of you will too. Two old guys sat on the first and second rows at church. The guy on the front row often nodded off to sleep during the long sermons, imagine that. Well, his old buddy behind him would poke him with his walking cane to wake him up. Every time this happened the sleeping oldster would startle awake and shout “Amen.” The second pew prankster had a lot of fun at his sleepy brother’s expense. One Sunday after a morning of several shouted Amens the poker timed his poke just after the preacher said in his sermon, “What did Eve say after she and Adam had their hundredth child?” The practical joker poked the sleeper and this time he angrily jumped up and shouted, “You poke me with that thing again and I’ll wrap it around your neck?” The congregation roared in laughter. And the pastor knowing he had lost his audience concluded his sermon.

I still get poked every so often on Facebook and poke back and even follow a few of the suggestions to poke others, yes, and some of them poke back but I confess the whole idea makes me smile and think of Miss Kitty or Mae West playing a sexy dance hall girl, and of an old guy trying to get a little shuteye on a hard church pew.

And who knows maybe those college guys who came up with Facebook had passing on a few smiles in mind. Without flirting and a whole lot of poking we’d soon run out of friends to Facebook anyway.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White