아부지

A Blue Jeans Blessing

One winter afternoon when I was twelve years old, my father picked up a hitchhiker. My two brothers were sitting with me in the back seat of our Plymouth Voyager van... The hitchhiker looked sixteen or seventeen, a tall Scandinavian wearing blue jeans with big holes in the knees. It was thirty-five degrees out. He ducked his head and climbed into the van with us, and then my dad drove on. The ensuing conversation, which I will never forget, went something like this: "These are my kids, Andrea, Ben, and Nate. My name's Sam. What's your name?" "Donovan," the hitchhiker said. "Oh, that's a good name." My father paused. "Have you ever heard of Amy Carmichael?" "Um, no..." "She was a Christian missionary to India who worked to save young girls from sex trade enslavement. The place where she worked was called Dohnavur, which is kind of close to your name, Donovan. So you have a good name, a name with Christian purpose." "Oh." In the hitchhiker's long pause that followed, I remember thinking, My father is out of his mind, preying on this young hitchhiker who wanted a ride and instead got a church sermon on Christian missionary history. I felt embarrassed in the same way I did when my dad prayed over our food in a restaurant and the waiter brought the ketchup while he was still praying. Donovan rode with us for several miles until we reached the cut-off road to our house. After pulling the van onto the shoulder to let him out, my dad turned to my older brother, who was about the same size as the hitchhiker, and said, "Ben, why don't you give Donovan your jeans. It's cold out." In the back seat of the van, Ben took off his pants and gave them to the hitchhiker while my little brother and I looked sideways at each other. Proverbial Christian wisdom says you give away the coat off your back, not the pants off your backside. In exchange for my brother's jeans, the hitchhiker handed over his own - the jeans with big holes in the knees - and my brother wrestled them on. Then Donovan got out. He was headed farther north toward Canada. I watched from the back seat as he diminished into the distance, a tall, lean figure standing on the side of a long winter road. These years later, I remember the whole exchange as a small act of goodness. My father, the funny priest, blessed a hitchhiker not with holy water but with jeans. I can see this only in retrospect, though. Then, in my early teens, my mom and dad seemed painfully Christian and parental... [Now, I] remember my father saying in so many words to a hitchhiker, "Your name means something. Your life means something too." 내 나이 12살 어느 추운 겨울 날 두형과 더불어 우리는 프라이마우스 우리 집으로 아부지기 윤전하는 차로 둘아 가고 있었다. 귀가 하이웨이에서 손을 흔들어 동승을 요청하는 히치하이커를 보고 아부지는 차를 세우고 그를 태웟다. 고개를 숙이고 차에오른 그는큰 키 마른 체격에 스칸디니비안 복장을 하고 있었고 입고 있는 진 바지의 무릎에는 큰 구멍이뻥 뚫려있었다.16~7살로 보엮다. 아부지는 우리들 하나하나의 이름을 소개하고 그의 이름도 물어보고 "도노반"이라고 대답할 때 그의 이름과 비슷한 다른 좋은 역사의 사건들을 얘기하며 그의 이름이 좋다는 얘기랑 이것 저것들을 얘가했었다. 수 마일을 달린 후 마침내 우리는 우리 집으로 가야 하는 막다른 지점의 갈림길에 도달했었다. 갓길에 차를 세우고 그를 내리게 하고는 뒷 자리에 앉아 있는 큰형을 돌아보며 "벤아 너 키나 몸이 도노반과 거의 비슷한 데 왜 그랑 바지를 바꾸어 입어 보면안될까" 나와 작은 형이 바라보는 동안 형은 그의 진바지를 벗어서 도노반에게 주고 도노반은 그의 구멍난 바지를 머리 위로 들어올려 우리에게 보여주며 큰형에게 건네주어서로 바꾸어 입었다.그리고 그는 북쪽 카나다를 향해 걸음을 옮겼다. 큰 키의 야윈 모습의 도노반이 큰형의 바지를 입고 한겨룰 갓길에 서 있는 모습이 나의 시야에서 점점이 사라져 갔었다. -Faith and Other Flat Tires: Searching for God on the Rough Road of Doubt (A Memoir), by Andrea Palpant Dilley