SALT then HEALING

It snowed again. The path to the bird feeder is now piled as high as my shoulders. The driveway entrance is blocked so high that I should mount one of those fancy curved mirrors across the street so passage out to the street is safe. Haven’t seen snow this high since I was a kid; 50 years ago. I love it. I describe it to all who will listen as a “winter wonderland.”

But all this snow takes salt. Lots of it to keep the roads clear enough to see the center stripe on the pavement and expose enough of the sidewalk to see where to shovel next time. I also use salt on the edge of the roof to melt the ice dam that forms when all that snow turns to water then ice when the temperatures fall below freezing at night.

Then there is the salt that comes from the tears in my eyes when I think about and share that my medicine will change next week. It is a stronger cancer medicine. It is the next step to keep the spreading under control. There is a fancy word for that…metastatic. I can feel it. Think of it as a billfold in the wrong place.

We were solving the worlds problems at coffee yesterday and it came to me that salt is used in prayer also. The discussion spans the rainbow when we sit to discuss how we do not have any say in the solutions to any of the great issues facing out world today. I will call out just two. The guy in North Korea planning to defend his nation with some really big explosions. The kind of explosion that even the smart scientist can not fully define with equations. We need to throw some salt on it to change the melting point. It’s a metaphor? The other good example is the loud mouth stupid talk coming from Washington DC these past few weeks. There is no metaphor that approaches the folly of equal social justice for those unwilling to work.

Then it happen. Salt was thrown on our coffee time. It came in the form of a text requesting prayer and the laying on of hands. It’s a Christian thing? The look on our faces must have been “classic.” We all agreed to pray about the issue. It was awkward. It lasted about three sentences. It was public. It was the salt that melted more ice off the road with no centerline in sight.

Think of it this way.

Most of us go through life thinking that right and wrong are clearly defined as (say) left and right. Or good and evil. Or even that left way or this right way. But life has become so mixed up that right and wrong are intertwined so tightly they look the same. Some discuss this point using the metaphor of a “moral compass.” There is a place north of me the compass can not be used because of all the iron in the soil. The needle just spins without coming to a halt in any consistent direction. Reminds me of a Bible passage where Christ throws salt into the world and says “I am the Way, the truth, and the life.” Now that is a great answer to this mixed up thinking.

Salt. What a great creation to control our foolishness. Ya’ think?

RLW