"The Personality"

We all 6 have it in some varying degree. It is its own entity. I say that only because it takes on a life of its own.  It takes over when you least expect it to. It will give you the boldness that usually comes from bottle of whiskey. It says things you don’t want it to. The personality, is funny at times, inappropriate  at other times, and it can take over a room of unsuspecting party goers in a New York minute!! This personality of ours, we all have fell victim to its good side and its bad side. There is the fact that it can make you a fun loving life of a party kind of a person, but with that comes the bad side of doing or saying something stupid.   I’ll give you some examples, I’ll leave out the names, just to protect the not so innocent.

One example of “the personality” making you say things you don’t really want to is when one of the family members, was visiting the home of the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God. (For those of you that may not be of our denomination, that is like our Pope) While he was giving a tour of his back deck overlooking a beautiful golf course, they paused and “someone” was standing by a large bush  and from that bush came fluttering a HUGE BIRD!! This “someone” is very afraid of birds, so she/he went into the fetal position and began screaming “Jesus, Jesus”! Which was an actual prayer but misunderstood by everyone there as a swear word.

This personality of ours, makes us have the need to be clever, and funny at times. So we often say things to amuse others or ourselves. Like when “someone” orders at Wendy’s and they say “do you want to biggie size that?” and “someone” says “No thank you I am Biggie enough”.  The examples of this kind of banter are endless. But occasionally we are just trying to get through the day, and we end up saying stupid stuff. Like once a particular family member in his/her job was trying to ask a client if they would like an envelope. Instead she said “Would you like a video tape?” Of course the client then wanted to know what kind of video tape she had to offer!!

But when some times that personality kicks in and like I said before gives you the boldness that usually only comes from a whiskey bottle. Once a family member went to a LARGE prophetic conference that was being led by some VERY big names in those circles, there were over a thousand people in attendance. After one very moving service where the conference leaders had brought up some Native American Indians and led the people in a lengthy prayer service of repentance for the way our nation had treated them many years ago. “Someone” went to the conference leaders and let them know that if the Lord led them to lead the congregation in a prayer service of repenting for all the redneck jokes she and our family would be willing to stand in the gap for all the rednecks of America.   

Once when we were teenagers, our family was eating at McDonalds. We were all cutting up and having a great time, like we usually do. That day the personality came out in full force in one particular unnamed individual who became slightly annoyed with the stares we were getting. So she began “taking names”, (like your elementary teacher used to have you do when she would leave the room to make everyone behave). Anyway she announced loudly that she was going to be taking names. For whatever reason, this made one patron very unhappy, and she let us know just how unhappy she was with “someone’s” decision to take names. So to help calm the situation down that “someone” looks the unhappy patron in the eye and says “you just got a CHECK MARK”. Needless to say we had to leave McDonalds rather quickly after that.

We have had to leave restaurants rather quickly a few times.  Mostly because we have laughed so loud that we have made everyone around us upset. Once we left a restaurant and dad told us “ya’ll did everything but yell out the secret code” (that’s a Ray Stevens song reference in case you aren’t a fan!!) Once we were almost kicked out of a grocery store because of “the personality” it had us doing some creative coupon shopping. Where one person would give us hints of what the coupon was for then the rest of us would have to run all over the store to find the product then back to the coupon holder to see if we got it right.  We were making a small scene, not to bad, for us anyway, until the coupon holder gave us the hint “it rhymes with Utty EBBLES” We all fell out laughing and had to quit playing the game.

This personality is a blessing and a burden. It is great that we all 6 have it. Sometimes we will call each other and say stuff like “I was at a party last night and I was doing that thing that we all do” and we know exactly what the other one means. From the way you were sitting to the emotion behind whatever you said. When you answer the person “yeah, I know” there are many levels to that understand, that no one but the 6 of us may ever truly get. I am so very glad that I have my family to share this personality with. No one can make me laugh like they do, cause we think the same things are funny. No one thinks I am as funny as they think I am, cause they would do the same thing in my shoes. We work together like gears in a machine!! If you are reading this blog, that is because you know one of the 6 of us, or you may have the pleasure of knowing all 6 of us. If you only know one, you really should spend some time with all 6 of us together, it is quite a show. If you have ever had the joy of spending time with the 6 of us together then you may have a few stories of “the Personality” to share too!!