THE OLD SOW AND THE BOTTLE

Memories are only useful if we re-member… That is, re-live the memories. As we get older we increasingly like to re-live some past event or personal experience. The problem is we are apt to embellish the memory until we forget where fact separates from fancy. Be that as it may, I think it is just fine to embellish a little if it helps to get across the essence of the real experience. Now the reason I am talking so philosophically is because I have a desire to blog about such experiences, and I want you to know ahead of time that I cannot swear that all things happened exactly as I recall them. So, here goes the first one.

I must have been somewhat beyond my second year of life, and still enjoying the bottle. I seem to recall we were living on what I later learned was referred to as the "Higgered place." We had moved from McAlester, OK when I was about a year old, after dad was discharged from the army. I think this was our first house after moving back to Arkansas. We had a Hog, a sow to be exact. I do not know if mom and dad were going to raise pigs or were fattening this one out to butcher.

Now back to the important part. My mom was apparently trying to find a way to wean me from the bottle. She had not succeeded. Even back then I had a stubborn streak. Well one day we had a visit from Aunt Ethel, my dad’s oldest sister. Ethel lived by the notion that it is often easier to get forgiveness than permission. And she never met a situation she was unwilling to plow into head first. Were mom had failed to succeed in solving my bottle problem, Ethel waded right in and used her unorthodox approach.

I was apparently running around in the yard, screaming for my bottle. Just then, Ethel’s mental acumen came to the surface as she turned to me and said in a dramatic voice (at least that is the way I remember it), “THE OLD SOW ATE YOUR BOTTLE!” Well admittedly I was not yet well trained in problem solving, but intuitively I knew that I was no match for that sow. I remember climbing up on the wooden planks that were part of the pig sty, and did my best to communicate with that sow. I was not very good yet at English and even worse at speaking “pigese.” I never even entertained the notion that Ethel might be just fibbing to me. So I finally accepted what seemed to be the inevitable. That sow had eaten my bottle and I had no spare.

It was my first experience at having to deal with disappointment. But from that time until now I have learned that dis-appointment can be the necessary step to an appointment that will make me more mature. I learned to drink from a cup.

LESSON: TAKE AWAY THE “DIS” FROM DISAPPOINTMENT AND YOU HAVE AN APPOINTMENT WITH SOMETHING BETTER. GOD IS EVEN IN CONTROLL OF WHAT SEEMS TO US A SMALL THING. THAT SOW AND THE BOTTLE AFFAIR WAS NO SMALL THING TO ME AT THE TIME, BUT SINCE, I HAVE LEARNED THERE ARE MANY THINGS I HAVE TO GIVE UP TO FIND THAT WHICH IS MUCH BETTER AND RICHER, AND BLESSED BY GOD.

Paul said in Phil 4:11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.