'SOCK' IT TO ME....

No, all these socks aren't mine. I brought them home from my son's home while they were away for a few days. As a good “house-watcher” for a super-busy family, I add a few “helpful touches” when I go to their house to bring in the mail and check on their pet cat and bunny. Cat is happy if I scoop food into its bowl and “gifts” out of its litter box. Bunny is happy if I reach in his cage, scratch his head, and make sure he has fresh water, enough bunny food, and a quick snack (carrot or celery) from the family refrigerator for a “comfort treat.”

My full-service Mom-Grandma-House-watcher role also extends to sorting baskets of just-washed-and-dried laundry brought up from the basement washer-dryer.  My “rule” when house-tending when they're away is NO going down the steep stairs to the laundry area itself. A fall resulting in a bone-crunch (things you think about as you age) would not be a happy scenario for an all-alone house-checker. But freshly-washed-and-dried laundry, waiting in the living room, is fair game for doing a helpful chore.

This time, as I started in on a full bin of socks, I realized they were still a bit damp. So, I brought them home and hung them on my outdoor clothesline to get “nature's dryer” at work. While doing that, I smiled to think of the colloquial saying, “Sock it to me.” The common meaning is “prove it to me” or “bring it on.” It implies that you're ready for a challenge, or maybe a “course correction” that might not be pleasant but worthy of a kind rebuke to improve your outlook or behavior. Of the latter, Proverbs 17:10 (ESV) observes:

A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.

That is to say: consider your response to correction and guidance. Do you bristle with defense of your challenged behavior? Or are you willing to consider a necessary change? Another thought: is the person who is pointing out a “soiled” attitude or behavior, a godly example themselves? Are they reaching out in love and care as opposed to selfish offense?

One more thing about line-pinned laundry (the clean type). When I've hung out laundry on a sunny, breezy day, there's a special sense of inhaled “freshness” when I gather the dried results. I usually pair-up socks when I pin them to the line, saving a step when they're dry and taken down. What if I can't find a “match”? Well, orphans happen in a busy household. That's why they have a special basket for the all-alone socks to hopefully someday reunite with its mate. And maybe there's a lesson here, too, about patience. Or letting-go.