Cone Head

My father's first words when he looked down in the hospital nursery at my new born body was, "My God what's the matter with his head?" It seems that I entered this world after an extremely long and labored labor. After all my mother was told that she could never have children because of certain "conditions" that she managed to carry over from childhood illnesses.

So when I did show up I had this head that was as long as my body. This was mainly because of a long, pointed "knot" atop by head. Legend has it that my Aunt Hattie took me out on the front porch of my grandmother's house and rocked me while pressing down on my head with a warm towel. In other words my Aunt Hattie shaped my life.

How many hands shape our lives? Some of them we may not even remember. Those who study such things tell us that our "personalities" are shaped and formed by the time we are five years of age. The way we are touched or not touched, the words that tell us who we are, and the actions that frame our way of seeing life are given to us by parents, extended family, and whoever can get close enough to "shape" our lives of clay.

What's my point? Well, its atop my now balding head, thank you very much. But...its not nearly as pointed as it could have been if it were not for my Aunt Hattie. There are some parts of our lives that are shaped and we simply have to endure it. But we have the ability to shape that which has been shaped because we still have choices to make. It is not all determined.

I deal with people all the time who have decided to quit lamenting past shapings and decide to participate in some new shaping. People in the "recovery 12 step program" know this. The truth is that we are all "in recovery" because we are recovering a sense of what we shall do with the shape we are given.

Some of my favorite words of the Bible say, "Lord you have searched me and known me....it was you who formed my inward parts...in the depths of the earth...I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (from Psalm 139) So though we are shaped we have choices about what "shape" we are now in...Thank you Aunt Hattie for helping God give shape to my life. Let me not waste your efforts.
Bless you,
jody jseymour@davidsonumc.org