Lessons About Taking a Stand: Part II (week 514)

If you have jsut begun reading the weekly blog, than you might want to start with last week's "Lessons About Taking a Stand: Part I", so you know what this is all about...

So, the stand didn't work out very well for me personally. It all began as planned when we entered last week.  The big recess finger football tournament began on Monday and it was going pretty good at first.  We all participated in the development and the execution of the action and I had responsibility for managing the field goal standards, the 8.5" x 11" tournament sheet, and my own set of hand crafted paper finger footballs.  We tried making different people the referees for the games to rotate responsibility and hedge against the corruption that comes from consolidated power, but it didn't matter in the end.  When it comes down to pride and victory, versus the humiliation of losing to your best friends, the natural tendency of any young man is to find a way to begin shifting the rules in his favor.  We made it until Thursday before it really started to comes of the rails but Plan B had to be implemented.

Plan B began at Friday morning recess and was going swimmingly--at least for me.  Two of my closest friends, who had been subject to some of the most egregious cheating were more than happy to join the alternative "FNC" finger football tournament "For Non-Cheaters" during the morning recess.  With three, we had a critical mass to begin tipping the larger group our way and to start our new league.  The problem was that the founder of the original finger football tournament, the source of most of the controversy (but also very close friend to all of the protesters), found himself alone and in tears with his equipment.  What looked to be a great start to the weekend came suddenly crashing down.

After having thought through and discussed our plans with many advisers, I thought it was going pretty good.  That is until I saw my good friend crying.  Not only was I effected by this turn of events, but by lunch time my fellow protesters had abandoned me and returned to the original finger football league commissioner; and, leaving just me and my best friend Nate on our own.  It was a dramatic turn of events that left everyone confused, angry, and emotionally drained.  By the late afternoon, I was in trouble with my mom, scratched two squares into our living room couch, and lost the option of going to the Keller Harvest Festival with Chris.  

Taking a stand had come crashing down on me, and I was at a loss for what to do next.  My dad and I talked long and hard about it Friday night: why did my friends abandoned the plan?  Why did the abandoned me?  Did I don the wrong thing or did I just do it the wrong way?  Should I return to the original finger football league on Monday (Halloween) or do I now go to Plan C: the boycott?

To be continued next week...