Look What He Did

He Went and Put His Head In There
Big Frank Dickinson

"Don't put your head in there. It's going to cause trouble." They went on to say that his head was not wanted in there and when it went in there it would only cause him embarrassment because he would have to withdraw it, or if he left it there then everyone would know and would comment along the lines of, "Look at that head; he stuck it in there when everyone told him that he shouldn't." Still he did it. At first it felt good - he was thinking that this is exactly where his head belonged; it seemed to really fit in many ways. The view was excellent, and having always wanted to have his head there he also thought that he certainly was being true to himself by having it there. Then (the inevitable other side) he began to think that while it was wonderful for him to have his head where he had inserted it (and the view was promising) he was hearing things like: "Why did he do that?", and "Hadn't he agreed never to put his head in there." OK, he had said something along those lines, not so much of not putting his head in there, but rather of acknowledging that with his head in there, everything would be much different and many things would be more obvious, but that's not the same as promising never to put his head in there. In other words, while it is true that maybe he had, at times, thought about it - and that was perfectly OK, as long as he didn't talk about it, just as those few people who opposed it, perhaps thought, privately that it really was not appropriate for him to have his head in there, the whole agreement rested on the quiet understanding, without explanation, that his head really was better off, for them anyway, not being there. Then he went and did it. He put it in there, deciding, as much that he wanted it in there, as - Ok, they way don't want it in there, but maybe they really do want it in there, and only say they don't because they can't admit, for reasons that he couldn't understand, that his putting his head in there was exactly what they most wanted. Now with his head in there he didn't hear: "Take that head out of there." No what he heard was: "We are not going to even comment or discuss on the fact that your head is in there. This is not going to be discussed." So he thought: "They didn't say that they didn't like it in there - so mabe they really do, but just can't admit it, for reasons that he didn't know, and maybe they didn't know either." Then he thought - maybe it was such a shock, and his head, being in there, were it to be discussed, it might open up conversations that would prove not so much that it was OK for him to have his head in there, but rather that they all along did want his head in there, but to admit it now would prove embarrassing to them because they had told all their friends that they certainly didn't want his head in there, while secretly thinking that it might be pretty cool if he put his head in there. He kept it in there and they went silent. He kept it in there.