08/05/2016
Some things, don't happen like they used to.
In the midst of this age of 150 word snippets that we want to disappear before someone can have a chance to save them, I am thoughtful about two things that seem completely unrelated. That old Sesame Street song..."one of these things is not like the others..." comes to mind, as I find myself thinking about Shoe horns, and Gentle Words.
When I was little I loved those trips to get new shoes. In those days of course, we had "shoe-salesman", those possessors of the fabled shoe horn. Slip that bad boy behind your heel as you put that shoe on, and in your foot would go like it was greased, whether the shoe fit or not. Of course, a good shoe salesman would have measured your foot ahead of time, to be sure that when it slipped into that shoe, your toes didn't get pressed into a vise at the front end and lose all circulation.
So what in the world do shoe horns and shoe salesmen have to do with gentle words? Well, words are just that... words. Words matter of course, because they are the expression of heart, passion, anger, disappointment, life...or death. And, shoes matter. Once I had returned home from those shoe shopping events in my life, I would put my shoes on using the only method that young, super busy little boys use. Cramming. No shoe horn, no measuring, no real thought at all. Just brute force cramming. This method accomplished two things. It broke down the back of my new shoes and bruised my heel a bit. It also had the added benefit of upsetting my parents who knew that broken down backs of shoes led to having to buy new ones again, more quickly than would have been otherwise necessary, something hard on the family budget. I was young and immature. Focused on being outside, doing the next thing or just playing in general, I had no time to be sure that the shoes that I had, lasted, or weren't broken down. I hadn't paid for them, and the cost wasn't mine.
Words and shoes are a great deal alike. They both have the power to carry something, protecting and sustaining it during the midst of a season of life. The word gentle, like that shoe horn, is a modifier. It changes everything. Applied to a word, it becomes a virtual tool that both makes the acceptance and longevity of that word more likely. Good words, delivered harshly, are stripped of all of their potential to bring life to their recipient. Hard words, brought gently, become the safety net and boundaries of true love.
What then of the measuring? The Good Shoe Salesman measures the foot before searching in his stock for the shoe that fits...and the same is true of a good bringer of words. Delivery isn't interchangeable between recipients, as is evidenced by the great volume of books written about "love languages". The wise bringer, crafts the delivery to the recipient, and can only do so well through the lens of Perfect Love. It's kind of funny when I think about it, harsh words and brute force cramming of shoes....they both break the back. Apply gentleness, and life can grow up, even in desolate places.
