September 16,  2022

Reflections

BUTTONS

The theme for a talk on "Buttons" keeps hitting me.

What are your buttons?

What are my buttons?

So and so was cheated on, divorced, dumped by her husband. She wasn't too happy as I sat next to her at a 50th Wedding Anniversary.

She might have had an extra drink too many.

I don't know, but she was voicing various angry comments.

Someone in the car - while driving home - commented on her behavior and said, "Maybe she had a drink too many - or maybe she was seeing a marriage that worked and it triggered thoughts about her marriage that didn't work."

I don't know. I didn't think about any of that at the wedding.

I was looking at the oil and vinegar jars at the table for our salad. They reminded me of those small glass cruets they have on tables with pancake syrup.

Every time I looked at those glass cruets, they brought back memories of taking pancake syrup without thinking. It was 4 months ago. That's when I found out I had diabetes Type 2.  My mind felt ugly. The side of my head went dizzy. I remembered the last time I had a double scoop of rum raisin and butter almond ice cream.

That pancake syrup was a button.

It triggered the story of F. X. Murphy pulling out of our house in Washington D.C. The bumper of his car got entangled on the long chain that our dog Bernadette was wearing around her neck - attached to a tree. He drove about 6 blocks before he noticed people beeping and signaling, something was wrong.

Rolling down his window he heard, "You're pulling a dog."

Every morning since then, when F.X. goes by Bernadette, she gives him a low, long sounding growl.

Donna was coming out of church. She said to me, "I heard you just preached a parish mission over at St. Andrew's."

I said, "Yes."

She said, "I don't like that church. They don't have a crucifix."

I was there for 5 days and I didn't notice they didn't have a crucifix.

I did notice they had a neat statue of Saint Andrew - holding a fishing net - all in bronze.

Some things that we don't see can trigger feelings - so too - what we see.

If we handed everyone a piece of paper and ask them to jot down 25 of their buttons.

Can we learn how to avoid having one of our buttons pushed?

Wait! I think the first step would be to be aware of our buttons.