THE WOOD BOX

Please sit on the wood box for a little while and I’ll give you my unasked viewpoint. It might serve to help to a clearer view of the situation. …. I’m very sorry that this had to come to you. …. I find it hard to believe that “all things work together for good to them that love God,” but He can and does overrule our mistakes if we are willing to do our best. We are building for a better plane of existence, of that I feel sure, and our trials here will add to our joys there, for everything is understood by contrast. I didn’t and don’t mean to preach to you. I’m just talking of my own thoughts and beliefs. I wish you might have a home of your own, but I’m thankful anyway for the house you have and for your friends. – Ina Dobson to her son Vance

Obviously, my dad was going through a rough patch when Grandma Ina wrote the above to him in 1933, 90 years ago. He was 29. I might not have recalled this passage were it not that I pictured Daddy sitting on the wood box while Grandma ranted on. Had he and his siblings endured her lectures in that manner? She probably meant for it to be uncomfortable in more ways than one. I can see her kneading bread as they sat there on the wood, perhaps tuning her out.

“Have they talked to you yet,” I once overheard Milo ask Clint. It comes to the point where your only tool is to talk, and then talking just isn't enough. We have to live our own lives. KW