Four guys and 10 minutes

By Jeff Becraft

Since I recently talked about Wallaby, and also Mr. Mert, I am going to tell another story that happened at Mr. Mert’s wedding. There were four of us that were staying in someone’s apartment. I don’t know who the person was, but they lived in Indiana, and they were letting us use their apartment for the weekend.

There was me, Wallaby, Moon Man, and the Bullet. (Bullet played football in college and a friend of ours once stated, “I assure you, he is no bullet… he is more like a Pershing missile.”)

Earlier that day, we had already had an experience with the Bullet when we all went to pick up our tuxes. The Bullet (who is the biggest one of all of us) comes out of the dressing room and his tux pants are about 12 inches too short. In a jovial, serious sort of way, he says, “Hey, I think there is something wrong here.” After a big laugh from all of us at the sight, he was able to get the situation straightened out.

That afternoon, the four of us (Mr. Mert had more important things to attend to) had all gone out and played basketball. But we had lost track of time.  When we had gotten back to the apartment, we had only 10 minutes to get ready to leave for the wedding. That is four guys, all hot and sweaty, who needed to shower and get dressed in tuxes and leave for the wedding… in 10 minutes.

This is where Wallaby took over (Wallaby was a lieutenant in the Army). Wallaby is in the bath house barking orders at everybody. No one even turned the water off. One guy would come out and another guy would go in. Wallaby would be there snapping off orders, “Private Bullet! What are you doing?! Quit using that towel and get down on the rug and roll around! Next guy, get in there!”

And believe it or not… four guys got showered… and dressed in tuxes… and were out the door in 10 minutes.

There are a couple things we can learn from this. One, it is amazing what you can accomplish in a short period of time if you really put your mind to it and work together.

The other is, this isn’t exactly the way we had planned it out to get ready for Mr. Mert’s wedding.  Because of a blunder in watching the time, we found ourselves in some challenging circumstances.

But instead of shrinking, we jumped in and overcame the challenges… and that has led to a vivid memory that has stuck with me now for over 35 years.

Sometimes in life, when circumstances don’t go the way we planned, we can make the best of that. And who knows… that may become a lifelong memory.

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].