Gochugaru Girl woke up this morning to a very grey and very wet day in London.
The book I am currently reading is called ‘when the bottom drops out’*. It might be better called ‘when the roof caves in’ as there is a leak in our roof and water damage to the ceilings.
The weather, which has been wet most of last week, is predicted to be wet again this week.
Not only that: to cheer myself up I made a cake and several things went wrong with it (normally unheard of), so it hasn’t been a great morning.
The title of this post comes from The Carpenters’ song, the lyrics which start out thus:
Talkin’ to myself and feelin’ old
Sometimes I’d like to quit
Nothing ever seems to fit
Hangin’ around
Nothing to do but frown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.
There is much to identify with these sentiments. Taken to its extreme, it would be every day that gets us down, and not just rainy days and Mondays. Karen Carpenter died aged 32 from heart failure caused by complications related to her battle with anorexia. At the time of her death, I was a teenager and would have done anything for that voice and that fame: and yet I asked myself – why was that not enough, and was there anyone who could have helped her?
Although Karen didn’t write the lyrics to the song, her rendition of it was so heartfelt (for me anyway) she might as well have done so. I could see the comfort to be found in someone you can trust:
Funny but it seems I always wind up here with you
Nice to know somebody loves me
Funny but it seems that it’s the only thing to do
Run and find the one who loves me.
Thinking of the name Carpenter reminded me of a story Mr Gochugaru’s paternal grandmother told me when I first met her. She and I got along extremely well. Mr Gochugaru was her first grandson and I think she was very excited at the prospect of the family line being extended.
Grandma B’s father did a lot of work with wood. One day at school she and her friends were talking about what their fathers did for a living. The other girls said things like ‘doctor, lawyer, accountant’. I am not sure exactly what their professions really were, but I am imputing the Chinese version here as these are the professions that Chinese people value. When Grandma B said, ‘My father is a carpenter’, the other girls looked at her and the conversation fell silent. Grandma B then dropped the bombshell:
Jesus was a carpenter.
That kind of statement might be ridiculed today in the secular West (Jesus Christ being a swear word for many people). Nevertheless there are still many for whom Jesus, who Christians believe is God in the form of a human, is the one person they can run to when the bottom falls out, when the roof caves in, when every day is a rainy day and Monday. I certainly count myself as one of them.
* When the Bottom Drops Out: Finding Grace in the Depths of Disappointment by Robert Bugh, published by Tyndale House, ISBN 978-1-4143-6349-3. I will post a review of this book when I have finished reading it.