Relationships.

Good afternoon dear reader & welcome to my world for another week. I am a little later than normal this weekend, given the Easter break & whilst the extra days off have been my inspiration for this article I have struggled to complete it. When I consider the Easter period, I wonder how many people today actually reflect on why we have the days off, or is this now just another holiday…

Most will recognize Humpty Dumpty as one of the more memorable nursery rhyme characters as I reminisce from my distant childhood. Yo will recall, he was the egg shaped fellow who sat on the wall & had a great fall. It is the dramatic end which carries the punch line: “And all the king’s horses & all the king’s men could not put Humpty together again.”

This final line drifted through my mind recently as an analogy on how fragile human relationships can tend to be. We can sometimes look sadly at the shattered pieces of a broken association or acquaintance. They looked so secure high up on the wall but once they have fallen then one wonders whether “all the king’s horses & all the king’s men” could ever put this relationship back together again? Like a broken egg, they look impossible to repair.

I wonder too, if in our respective communities’ dear reader, we tend to view relationships as being like Humpty Dumpty.  I suspect many leaders may agonise also about how to put things back together again. We can have an unrealistic & idealised view of something or someone, put them up high on the wall of our opinion, & when some disappointing incident occurs they fall from grace beyond repair.

There is an initial period of being idealised before the disappointing realisation they are human beings with some inevitable failings like the rest of us. If we look back hard enough I suspect we can all see this pattern in ordinary relationships among ordinary people?

I am sure many relationships are based on the Humpty Dumpty philosophy. Whilst we put people up on the wall we are not being real. We are not relating with others as real people, rather an idealistic vision of them which exists only in their own mind. Then, we simply walk away looking for someone else we can put up on the wall to idealise. Of course this simply sets us up for our next disappointment & so it goes through life.

However, & to the point of the weekend dear friends; the painful fall from the wall should not be the end. It can be a valuable step towards truth & a step towards a richer & more authentic relationship, when it is accompanied by love. Forgiveness is a miracle releasing us from the damage of the past & can even turn the pain into a benefit for the future. 1

Humpty Dumpty reminds me to move on from the immaturity of a nursery rhyme relationship & recognize & own the truth about ourselves & one another & move in the direction of love, & hope for the future. So, to my initial enquiry in paragraph one: this love & hope is most probably a major part of why we have an Easter weekend ~ still…

Who wants to be like an egg anyway…?

Thank you for taking the time to be with me once again. I hope my journey may encourage you also. This is Kenn Butler in Paradise, Nelson, with my best wishes for another short week ahead.
 
 
www.kennbutler.com