These are strange days, are they not?
A few days ago, I went to have my haircut. As with everywhere else that we go, the hairdressers is now COVID-safe. I am sitting in front of the mirror with my mask on, the hairdresser also has a mask and a visor on. We talk, small talk mostly which, incidentally, I am a bit rubbish at. But, even with my blokey insensitivities I know how important it is for me to engage in this conversation.
We talked about life, we talked about kids, we even talked about holidays though neither of us had been on one this year.
Then, I started to tell her about my weekend and particularly about my visit to Caffè Nero with my family. It was the first time that we had taken our son K to a coffee shop since before March 23rd. My son has additional needs, and it can be hard, especially if he does not fully understand the dangers.
However, it was my wife who struggled the most. You see, Jo had been getting over a cold and as is always the case, when my wife is getting over a cold, she had a bit of a hacking cough. Now, when we went into the coffee shop, we both believed the cough was over, but some fragrance or something like that triggered a reaction and the more she tried not to cough the more she felt the need to.
Social conventions are funny things, especially as they seem to emerge and become established very quickly within a pandemic. I am not sure that anyone could have felt more awkward in the shop than we did in that moment.
Slightly embellishing the story for the sake of humour, I said the following comment to the hairdresser:
“I lent over toward my wife and said ‘…for goodness sake love, just fart really loudly, you will offend a lot less people!’”
My comment was in reference to something I had heard a few days earlier:
‘We always used to cough to hide a fart, now we fart to hide a cough’.
The hairdresser’s reactions were astounding to me. She put her one hand on her chest and burst out laughing. I mean, it was a belly aching laugh. She crossed her legs and bent downward, continuing to laugh.
Now I have a long career in farting jokes, and none of them have ever got that reaction, but something had been building up in this hairdresser and she needed to release it.
I do know a bit about her 2020 story, and it has been very tough for her and her family.
So, for her this was cathartic. For me, well I am now happily retired from all farting jokes as I will never better that one moment in my hairdressers.
But here is the thing, after that she asked me what I did for a living. I was able to share with her about Jesus, CVM and how, though I am a Christian, I totally understood how she had been feeling.
Suddenly, ‘we are all in this together’ felt bit more poignant, a bit truer and who knows whether we will now both get to share God’s Kingdom in this life and beyond.
And it all started from a childish farting joke! What might get a similar conversation started for you.
Image Credit: Markus Winkler
