WHen I read the term "piling on", I had an immediate image of Ammo in the 7th grade playing his one and only year of football. Football in the Lone Star State is mandatory, a sort of Texas Bar Mitzvah; without the ritual you are never truly a man- certainly not a Texan. (Aside: Jewish sports joke- Bar Mizvah -the day when a Jewish boy comes to the realization that he is more likely to own a professional sports team than he is to play for one.)
Ammo was about 80 pounds and five feet tall, though not Jewish. Many of the boys here are held back a year in order to be bigger for sports, and many of his classmates were already the size of large, beef fed men. Ammo is small, but smart, and he figured out quickly that he could hold back for a second and then at the end of a play jump enthusiastically on the top of the pile, get up unharmed but grunting and making those male noises so everyone would know, yessir, he was right in there.
One day an opposing player broke loose with the ball and took off and the only player close by was Ammo who, having little choice, took off after him. He overtook the guy and tackled him but the guy kept running with little Ammo dragging behind. Luckily the extra Ammobaggage slowed the runner down enough for the bigger guys to take him down. We praised Ammo for doing the right thing, even if it hadn't exactly been the tackle of the year. But he realized that football was just not his thing, and became a swimmer.
In the same way, contact posting is not my thing; I hate mud and I wear little protective gear. But occasionally I respond if I see something that bothers me deeply- and personal comments about a person's character or personal life do that.
So piling on I deny- it had nothing to do with it, but I will plead guilty to buttinski if I have to plead to anything. I'm a mother, what can I say. |
