Blog 612 – 04.24.2017

Rubber And Glue

Art Linkletter wrote a book, Kids Say The Darnedest Things, and a familiar truism is, “Out of the mouths of babes comes wisdom.” One particular childhood refrain comes to mind, “I’m rubber, you’re glue. What you say bounces off me and sticks to you.” I have said for sometime that the thing that bothers us most in others and that often stirs the strongest emotions that lead to name calling is most often a reflection that we do not care to look at or admit is our own problem. We do this so often that it would really be funny if we could see the joke, “the proverbial pot calling the kettle black.” This is expressed in Spanish as, “The rabbit yelling big ears.” I like that better than the pot and kettle line.

I mentioned several blogs back that when someone says something unkind or unflattering to me that I try to remember to try to defuse the situation by replying something like, “I resemble that remark” or “I represent that remark.” The chances are I might indeed as I have blind spots too and that other person might be trying to point them out to me. It is also very likely that the character flaws they are so hotly pointing out are their own problem too or even more so theirs than mine. My favorite example of this is the fellow who yells, “I can abide anything but a liar.” That person most likely really has a problem telling the truth otherwise why would it be such a big deal? We all get it wrong from time to time for many reasons and to deny that is to deny our very nature and the all too slippery grasp that we have on the truth most of the time.

So back to this rubber and glue thing. I suppose if we were honest with ourselves, and that is not always the easiest thing to do or to be, we would have to admit that we are rubber and glue bouncing and sticking all through this life. But even those two things come in handy especially when we need to “bounce back” or “stick together.” A beloved friend of mine refers to the greatest love as “heavenly glue” and one of my favorite albums as a boy was Rubber Soul by the Beatles.

There you have it rubber and glue. Who knew, you would ever see a blog about those two?

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White