IT shouldn't be there!

by Terry 2 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Terry

  IT SHOULDN’T BE THERE!
  
  
  Knowing where things are is very important; the geography of a place, learning what should and shouldn’t be there. If for no other reason, this is important for reasons of safety.
  When you awaken in the middle of the night, for instance.
  Where am I?
  
  Simple question - important question. Why wouldn’t we want to know that?
  For one thing, sanity itself is tested by means of knowing where you are, who you are,
  ‘When’ and ‘why’ you are where you are.
  
  My Aunt…let me tell you about her for a small moment. She is a perfect example of knowing these basic things. Or, in her case, not knowing.
  All you need to know about Florence Baker is that she lived alone in a house and she lost her mind. First, she lost her husband, her daughter, and her friends. Losing her mind was easy after those losses. I’ll explain.
  
  Florence, like the rest of us, entered this world surrounded by a family waiting for her arrival.
  She was connected by an umbilical to her mother. That connection immediately was cut.
  That could have been the end of her right there! But no - she was wrapped warmly in a blanket and breastfed. A connection had been made. No choice on her part, no requirements except nourishment, sleep, growth, and awareness of her surroundings.
  It is the human condition, isn’t it?
  A rowboat in a stream floats away with the current if it isn’t moored or - with a rudder - steered. Where the flow goes, the unmoored boat goes. Unmanned it goes out to sea.
  Florence lost her mooring with the death of her husband, daughter, family, and friends.
  
  Aunt Florence, oddly enough, could be called Flo. Like the word itself: flow.
  Her house eventually filled with stacks of boxes, cockroaches, breeding cats, dead kittens, a room with a sunken roof, puddles of rainwater, broken plumbing…
  She was - you see - alone with herself and her mind and no tether to this world.
  For the second time an umbilical had been cut; only this time nobody wrapped her in a warm blanket and nourished her.
  You have to know where you are, you see -and why you are where you are - and most
  important of all: if you want to be there where you are.
  My cousin is Florence’s daughter and she was very concerned about her mother.
  The two of us went for a visit and discovered what state of mind and being she was in - quite a shock, let me tell you.
  
  At first, she met us at the screen door with vacant eyes and deep suspicion. I spoke quietly in a friendly tone just as if this were the most normal visit and no surprise at all.
  Suddenly, her gaze flickered and there was a kind of ‘pop’.
  A fireplace will sometimes “pop”.
  The Aunt Florence I knew had popped back into her mind and I saw her as through a window glass darkly and suddenly come into view!
  The hair went up on the back of my neck.
  She smiled and laughed and unfastened the screen door and walked outside in her usual friendly manner. She became chatty, asking questions and such - it was miraculous to observe. She allowed us to enter her house!
  I’ve already described what conditions she lived in. Our horror was unbounded.
  I’m going to break off right here rather abruptly - please forgive me!
  
  Many years later, my cousin and I decided we would try to find Florence’s brother, Jack (my Uncle Jack.)
  We found him in his house. The exterior had grown over with weeds, the yard a disaster of neglect.
  What followed was a knock at his door. He warily approached and the stunning sight of him met our gaze in an eerie repeat of the Florence encounter years before.
  We were invited inside - into a horror.
  He had been sitting in bed watching a black and white TV with a blurred screen (bad reception) and a flipping image on the screen. No cable, no digital connection - just a bad roof antenna.
  He was friendly though wobbly.
  My heart was broken as we sat there pretending all was right in the world.
  I’m not going to belabor this any further - I’m telling you something without getting to my poin.(t).
  
  Knowing where things are is very important; the geography of a place - where you are, and what’s safe and unsafe.
  Here is what has happened to all of us in the last three years.
  WE NO LONGER KNOW.
  We are disappearing behind our own eyes. Our world and our leaders are overgrown weeds, stacked with rotting boxes, a caved-in roof, dead kittens, and broken plumbing.
  
  Something is knocking at our screen door. Listen - can you hear it?
  Whatever that thing is - it shouldn’t be there!
  _________
  We lose ourselves, our place, our sense of time, and…our world little by little.
  Drip by drip. Tick by tick.
  If we close our eyes and rest - when our eyes open again we just might not be “there” at all.
  _________
  
• 

  enoughisenough

  The conclusion is a brilliant truth!
• 

  Terry