My son had a cat named Gracie. He inherited Gracie as a wee kitten and simply kept her given name. However, after a few weeks, it was obvious Tom might have been the better name. However, Gracie seemed quite content with his name, and a little playmate might be smart to save the furniture while the kitten was alone during the workday; thus Sammie, a tiny female kitten, joined the household. When taken to the vets for shots, and neutering, the vets, wanted to change the names on the charts as they were sure there was a mistake, …and so it is with many conclusions based on expectations rather than current situations.
The psyche of the two-leggeds, who at this time of much chaos, increased homogenizing of disparate communities, languages, opinions, and sadly, bigotry and righteousness, we are being challenged to be in the present. Does a name really identify a gender?
How do we “Save Grace”? I guess we would need to know what that means. Is Grace male, female, transgender, multigender, or is Grace a manner of behavior with some strict or perhaps flexible boundaries? If one is graceful, does that bring pictures of dancers, deer, antelope, or an elder gently teaching a child kindness and patience?
Is grace in our current churches, governments, communities? How do we save grace while cursing or accusing others of behaviors that are contrary to our own fleeting or abrupt impatience at odds with the moment? Can we save grace with an apology, an accusation, a burst of anger, a splattering of tears?
For whom are we trying to save grace –our mother, brother, sister, father? Why is there a need? When said and done, the moment is past, while the next moment is calling us forward. Learning to accept each move, success, failure, longing, embarrassment, appears to be a moment of challenge for an ego feeling some degree of fear, superiority, or inferiority. Taking time to listen from within to the sounds of nature, the smells of cooking aromas, or the breeze over fresh flowers, observing a deer tending her young fawn, witnessing a bobcat kill a rabbit to fill its needs for life—What is grace? How do we blend into our surroundings with grace? Do we meet a presumed threat with a gun, or with an inner grace of alertness, observation, personal instinct?
Feeing obliged to have some means of saving grace is important. It is an action toward finding some balance in potentially uncomfortable or dangerous situations. It is a pathway to cover-up or open-up a perceived faux pas! However, looked at from an “oops” position, perhaps laughter or embarrassment opens camaraderie and new friendships and simply recognizes that we all may frequently try to save grace.
M. Chandler McLay © February 6, 2020