Krazy Karl

There was a man in my home town who was known by just about everyone.  His name was Karl and he was often referred to as Krazy Karl.  He was known to ride his bike around Wadena every day no matter the weather or the temperature.

Karl was often laughed at, mocked and teased.  He likely was unaware of most of the teasing.  Though he could be known to get riled up and a bit frustrated at times from the constant banter of community teenagers.

Most people ignored Karl not wanting to attempt to engage him in conversation as it was nearly impossible to understand any of his guttural incoherent utterances.

 It was common to see him puffing away at cigars as he pedaled his old steel Schwinn single speed from the Hardee’s on one end of town to the Jim’s Eastside Mobile on the other. 

I knew this because when I turned 16 years old, I became a gas jockey at that full service fueling station known as Jim’s Eastside Mobile.  Karl stopped into the shop regularly.  In fact, like clockwork he would arrive every Saturday morning and slur the same question in a raspy throaty voice.

“Jey Kiddo!, Ju gut eny quaters fo me?”

Karl collected the 1976 bi-centennial quarters.  Knowing this, I and all of the other workers at the station would set aside any of the memorial quarters for when he would inevitably arrive every Saturday morning.

“Sure do Karl! I have 3 of them set aside for you here.”

We made the exchange, he handed me .75 cents and I intern set the 3 preserved coins into his hands.

Karl would linger a long time on those Saturdays.  He would spend his time smoking Swisher Sweets and rambling mostly incoherent sentences and phrases.  At one point I remember him in the back shop with me as I was working on an oil change on a Pontiac Grand Am.  Karl began slamming his fist against the right front metal fender proclaiming, “Dey dunt maak dem like dey yous to kiddo…nudding but plasdic.”

“Karl! You can’t punch people’s cars! You are going to make a dent…that’s not plastic…it’s metal.”

I came to really enjoy my time with Karl.  It was common that I would see him around town and I would greet him and we would chit chat briefly, mostly about quarters and cars and sometimes his hemorrhoids caused by his bike seat…yes…our relationship had gone that deep.

One of the greatest lessons that I learned from the relationship with Karl was about dignity. I don’t know that very many people treated Karl with respect or saw him as someone who deserved to be treated with dignity.

I wonder…who gives a person dignity?  Is it me, or is it God?  I think when the Bible says that God created them male and female...and in His likeness…God is placing great dignity on human beings. 

In Matthew 21:12-18, Jesus enters the temple courts and finds that the sacred space has been defiled, and filled with an insurmountable amount of corruption.  This space was to be set apart for God and is being used to degrade and defile others.  People are treating the space with contempt, they are treating others with contempt and they are treating Gentiles as animals without dignity.

May we come to see people with the eyes of God and treat them with the dignity of humanity as we share the love of Jesus to all.