Restacking Caps and Loving the Monkeys Who Took Them

One of our family's favorite books to read aloud is the classic children's tale, Caps for Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina. I loved the story when I was a child. Now I love holding my children in my lap as I read the story with an affected Slavic accent.
In the story, a cap salesman carries his wares on his head. One day, having little success at sales, the peddler sits down under a tree to take a nap. When he awakens he discovers that monkeys have absconded with his caps and are teasing him with them from up in the tree under which the peddler had slept. He stomps his foot and says, "You monkeys, you. Give me back my caps!"
Caps. Hats. "Wearing many hats" is an idiom for having many jobs. I wrote this book at the midpoint of a career in which I have worn many caps. During seminary I served two different churches as a youth minister; I also worked as aide at a psychiatric hospital, and I was a reporter for a denominational state news journal. When I left seminary, I spent one year as a chaplain in an intensive Clinical Pastoral Education hospital residency. After my residency, I became associate pastor for youth and young adults at a church where I served for eight years. During that time, I also entered an internship at a counseling center where I became a licensed marriage and family therapist. I also began taking classes toward a Ph.D. in human ecology, majoring in child and family studies with a cognate in counseling. After eight years, I left the church to go to school full time and finish that degree. While working full time on my courses and dissertation, I served as a graduate teaching assistant at the university and as an interim contemporary preacher at a church. After finishing my degree, I took a position as a family therapist at a non-denominational faith-based counseling center