Doesn't work.
As we continue to try to avoid hanging a sign on the door warning strangers of the danger of TC - "The Crud" - Amy has busied herself making her Amish Preaching soup. The end result, besides a messy kitchen, is a ham bone which she somehow managed to cut in two, to give to the dogs, the only creatures in the house not coughing.
Unfortunately, although Avery and Winston are sister and brother, Avery is the Alpha dog and Winston is our "special needs" dog.
Avery will take her bone and savor it, while Winston will devour his, or lose it, in a matter of minutes. This makes for an eventual show down as Winston circles Avery and her bone, while Avery delights in taunting him, snarling and growling if he comes too close. Soon tempers flared enough that I had to intercede, taking the bone away amid their frenzy leaving both dogs looking accusingly at each other.
It's the same way with tennis balls. If I toss a tennis ball, Avery will run like the wind and snag it before it stops rolling, Winston meanwhile will still be looking at my hand wondering when I'm going to throw the ball. His vision is fine...his mind, well, it's in a place of Winston wonderment. We've gotten used to him...actually we've learned to love his peculiarities.
To resolve the tennis ball dilemma, I've taken to using two tennis balls. One I throw far across the yard for Avery, and the other I toss a second or two later, not quite as far, which Winston can retrieve.
This is one of those rare situations where a triangular relationship works.
I don't believe there is truth in triangles.
Having a child who teaches math, allow me to stress I'm making that statement from a relational not a mathematical perspective.
Triangles are not truth.
When I served as a church deacon, I found myself counseling with a young family that had so many problems they could have made it on the Jerry Springer show...or COPS...or both...They probably had a shot at making the "best of" shows actually.
At first I tried to be someone they could talk to, and tried to help them, but I often found myself on the phone talking with the young wife, younger than our eldest daughter, who was at that time a mother of two. Or I found myself having one on one conversations with her young husband. The net result was that each would "unload" on me their various grievances against the other. Soon, even with the intervention of other members of the church, I found the situation seemingly impossible, and we pushed them toward couple's counseling where they'd have to actually talk to each other.
Honestly, I don't know how that turned out...they had a lot to deal with, but I knew I wasn't being used by God in that situation, although I do believe God was teaching me a lesson along the way.
One of the reasons Amy and I embarked on a search for a new church home is because we felt our communication with church leaders had become triangular. They had their truth, we had ours, and neither was being communicated directly. It led to misinterpretations on both sides and no real attempts at healing. One thing was clear, we didn't have true communication...we didn't have communication at all.
Distance and time have reaffirmed that belief and have given me reason to think long and hard about truth and relationships. As a result, Amy and I are traveling along a different path spiritually, which perhaps was God's plan all along.
I believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit...but my communication and relationship with that Trinity is still one on one.
Folks say, "You can't put God in a box."
I guess I'm saying I don't think His Truth fits in a triangle either.
