tackle box
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 7:46AM Father Bird is a nerd. There are no two ways around this fact.
There's really a lot of confusion around the two terms for people like him. The term "nerd" always seemed to me to be less derogatory than "geek", but looking them up on dictionary.com shows otherwise. (And gives me reason to scratch my head.) Here's what I get:
2. an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit: a computer nerd. geek
noun
1. a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)
2. a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
3. a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.
Wow. Who knew? Father Bird is not stupid, irritating, or ineffectual, definitely not unattractive, and he has not, to my knowledge, ever bitten the head off a live chicken. (I didn't make that up, that's really part of the definition.) I suppose I can say that he is a computer expert and an enthusiast, and I do have to admit that at times he is single-minded and slightly obsessed. But he's getting better at the nonsocial thing. So...now I don't know what to call him.
The rainy day that we moved into our new house, two neighbors saw U-hauls in the yard and came over to help us unpack. It was so generous of these two men, and we were extremely grateful to our new friends. As we unloaded boxes together, they tried to find common ground as a basis for conversation. The many boxes of books didn't really excite them. The furniture, eh. The piano was heavy enough for some good manly comments, but still no common chord was struck. The computers raised eyebrows, but everyone has computers now.
And then one of them laid hands on Father Bird's tackle box, at the back of the almost-empty trailer. He held it up triumphantly. "Hey!" he shouted, "Here's his tackle box! He's a fisherman! Yeah!" There were hearty laughs, much pounding of Father Bird's back, and many noncommittal remarks from him. Soon the unpacking was finished and the neighbors shook hands and departed in a heavy air of guy-camaraderie.
Father Bird stood on our side of the street, hands on his hips, watching them go.
"Did you tell them what's really in the box?" I asked him.
"Nope," he said.
Sorry guys, it's not what you think.
~MB~
Reader Comments (3)
Okay -- I'm laughing hard!!!! And can't wait to share this with Newel :)
LOL! And I have always said, as an adult, that nerds make the very best husbands.
love it!