The patio glider, a comfortable, two-seat swing, collapsed this morning when a rusty connection broke. I reversed the strut and bored a new hole after removing the bolt. I found a new bolt and went to buy a lock nut for it. The Trio hardware man handed me the nut and said, “Put it into your pocket and have a good day.” It was a freebee.
I thought up the solution strategy myself. (We can rely on the Holy Spirit, even unasked.) The real effort was putting the tools away. I always enjoyed solving problems around the home, but the real challenge was in Nature—bedbugs. We picked them up on the way to Charleston. Being on a teacher’s salary, I always chose the cheapest motels.
To live life is to go through toil and turmoil, as the operas say, and one day, though we don’t see that we’ve done it, we realize that long ago, somebody died for us around this time of the year, and that has made all the difference.
Civilization 