I want to talk about forks. Not actual forks, though I’m sure the history of that utensil is fascinating. (Just a sec … yup, fascinating.) Not even forks in the road.
However, this is about metaphorical … figurative … analogous forks? You might be familiar with the spoon analogy for living with non-visible challenges — that you only have so many spoons in a day and you have to decide what you’re going to do based on the number of spoons it takes, and outside factors can also take spoons away.
What does that have to do with forks, you ask? Good question. Sometimes you’re going through a Thing, and you tell the world things are fine. You even convince yourself you’re doing okay.
Then you drop a fork.
And you swear at the fork. You curse the fork and the metal it came from. You cry about the fork.
But, of course, it’s not about the fork. It’s about the Thing. And it’s not always a literal fork … though it sometimes is.
It’s like the straw that broke the camel’s back if the camel spat and hissed and stomped on the straw.
So, I’m going through a Thing, and a couple weeks ago, a fork dropped. Another, secondary thing reared its ugly head. To be fair, it wasn’t a small thing — it could screw me sideways pretty hard — but it’s most definitely not the capital-T Thing. It’s just the thing that broke the “I’m fine” façade.
Why a post about figurative forks? I guess mostly because I needed to get it out. But also, if you experience someone overreacting to something seemingly small, maybe they’re going through a Thing too. Note: going through a Thing is no excuse for being abusive. Full stop. Not cool. But it might be why they’re crying about a rabbit eating their pea shoots or putting the stamp on the envelope crooked … or dropping a fork. And if you yourself are going through a Thing and cry over a dropped fork and spilt milk, be kind to yourself.
Not writing update this week. No book recommendations for you. I should be back to regular programming soon. Until then, may the forks be with you.
Happy reading!
— CR
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