Breaking Down

Nothing here is permanent. Eventually, everything breaks down.

Our laundry machine has not worked properly since we bought it two years ago. It has a computer system with lights and beeps. Sometimes it will finish a load of laundry, but when I open the lid, I find that it hasn’t gone through the rinse and spin cycles. On other occasions, the machine works perfectly fine. Sometimes it will start beeping all by itself when it’s not even in use . . . and no one is even near it! When I told the repair man this on his last visit, he said he’d never heard of such a thing. My husband thinks we have a ghost, but there are no other mysterious things that happen here. Maybe we just got a demon possessed machine.

The good news is, we bought a five year warranty, but we are constantly having to get repairmen out here.

How about another break down? Two weeks ago, I pushed the button to recline on my sofa and behind me I felt foam. What’s this? The material was coming apart at the seams. I checked the loveseat and found the same thing. It was only noticeable if the seats were fully reclined. Again, a two-year-old sofa we bought when we moved here.

Good news, we also bought the five-year warranty on the sofas. A repairman came out and sewed them back together. Despite that he used heavy duty thread, I’m not thrilled with a needle and thread repair. Seems like it should’ve been done with a factory machine, but the original factory machine usage didn’t stay together, so we’ll try this.

We had another break down last week, this time it was our dog Max. Well, he didn’t actually break down, but the vet had us scared to death that at any moment he was going to keel over and die. He ate a pack of gum. It was in my purse, and my purse was on a chair where he could dig in and get it. Long story short, the ingredient xylitol is poisonous to dogs. After twenty-four hours and hundreds of dollars later, we learned from poison control that there wasn’t enough of the xylitol in this particular gum to be toxic for him. He was put through a bunch of tests before we found this out.

Unfortunately, human bodies break down too. Some sooner than others.

Nothing material is permanent, but we actually can find permanence in intangible things. Love, faith, kindness. One might say those things aren’t permanent either, but it’s all a matter of perspective. Despite a marriage breaking up or someone being unkind, love and kindness is always nearby. Even when someone dies, the love doesn’t go with them. It stays in our hearts. When a relationship breaks up, we don’t stop loving, we just may not love that particular person anymore. Love, faith, kindness are always with us, because they are inside. We just need to acknowledge it.