Through the World Barefooted -- Gerda's LBS Guide

[Gerda]

For those of the 3000 who thought this thread was about insulation --

The Path to Acceptance
A Poem By DnJ Sir Fixalot of the Green Cape

Hello (handy) Gerda,

I’m glad to hear your grief is drying out.
And you can already feel a difference.
Yay!

For cutting the pain with justifying, arguing, pleading, trying to figure out how to fix it --
well, that is like cutting 2-inch thick styrofoam with a bread knife.
Yes, what a mess that would make.

Use a razor knife.
Those retractable blade knives.
While working at a table or work bench or climbing a mountain
or looking at a crescent moon at -7 degrees --
18 fahrenheit --
in your t-shirt
after cleaning the MLCer's 8 brooms out your basement
and wedding and party dresses out of your closet.

Measure and mark the line you want to cut.
Then lay a straight edge, one of those 2x4’s from a wise friend
or whatever along the line.
Run the razor knife gently down the edge of your heart and along the line.
You are not trying to cut through all of your heart in one go.
Just score the line a few times with the knife.

(Note: Have the blade fully extended.
Yes it is very sharp, but you are not pushing through the cut, you are working gently.
The big reason for having the blade fully extended is those first scoring cuts.
You don’t want the knife handle to contact the straight edge of your soul;
that messes up the line and causes the next part, the deepening of the cut,
to be off square.

(You also need a blade around 4 inches
to cut at the correct angle and depth for that,
but that of course
is the kind of blade your MLCer used.)

Then remove the straight edge
and lay your heart over the edge of all the days of your life with that cut line
an inch or so past the edge.
Don't be afraid of that edge;
you won't fall off it.
Put a weight, like the 2x4's you heard from wise friends
or a book on abuse
or the bible,
or whatever on the edge furthest from you
to hold it down against the bench.
You'll need to hold your heart and mind down a little.
They will fight this process.
Then gently run the knife down the cut line
while pressing the side closest to you (the most painful side) down,
so as to slightly open the cut
and not to bind the knife.
The knife will not stay in there if you do this right.
A few more passes
and the pain is cut smooth and straight
with very little mess.

You will find that the mess you made
fits neatly in a couple of bags
on the back of a pick up truck
bumping over the ruts in the rain
and that you are whistling as you drive
and remembering a wise friend.