Monday, November 1, 2010

The Verbal Filter

I think it's been established that Jude's verbal and social filter isn't quite as polished as one would hope.  In fact, I'd argue that his filter is non-existant.  This story pretty much gives a painfully obvious glimpse into why we are cautious every time we go out in public.  Yesterday, we had been out running around after church and decided to grab something to eat.  Jude wanted McDonald's, but we thought it would be a better idea to go to Sam's and get one of their pizzas.  Rather than take it home and cook it ourselves, we dicided to have Sam's cook the pizza while we walked around and shopped.  After 5 or 10 minutes, we walked back to the food area to pick up our pizza.  Sarah went to the counter and I took the boys and sat down at a table.  In a moment of absent mindedness, I picked the table right by the checkout lanes.  The boys were both sitting in the cart waiting patiently (Sam's was taking forever) and I was distracted by feeding Rhett a smoothie.  Meanwhile, Jude was doing some "harmless" people watching.  Then, out of the blue I realize Jude was asking some woman a question.  "Why is your forehead bleeding?"  Kind of an odd question, but inquisitive...  She looked at him with a smile on her face because, apparently, she didn't hear or understand him.  Then, while still smiling, she said "what?"  Before I could realize what was happening, you guessed it, he posed the question in a way that might be a little clearer;  "your forehead is bleeding...why?"  This was the noooooo moment that leaves Sarah and I speechless.  It was at this point I realized he was talking to an Indian woman whose "blood" was actually a red dot adorned by many married Indian women.  NOOOOO.  Fortunately, the nice lady brushed aside the question and went on her way. 

Clearly the moratorium on talking to strangers hasn't worked.  I started to get onto him, but really, how good is a lecture when you are having to stop mid sentence to compose yourself?  I just stopped, took a deep breath and asked that he not talk to strangers anymore.  That should work. 

No comments: