Inside and Out

I have been a walker for nearly 15 years now. The town I live in is roughly a mile square. Almost every block has an alley through it, running north/south. To vary my route, I have often walked these alleys, and it is always interesting to me how the back yards and private areas compare to the front yards, the public areas. Sometimes they are as neat in the back as in the front. Sometimes they are messy front and back. But the ones that interest me are the ones that are neat on the front and messy in the back. I wonder if the house represents the character of the people who live there. I wonder if the people who live there put on one face for society and another in private.

Back in the Carter era, there used to be this joke, based on a Snickers tag line, "How is Jimmy Carter like a Snickers bar? No matter how you slice him, he comes up peanuts." I know that was really meant as a put down, but I kinda liked it. I always hoped that people would say that about me. I don't want to be one way in public and another way in private. Perhaps this adds to my gruffness and my lack of tact; but I want to be "what you see is what you get". I'm always disappointed when I think a person is one way or thinks one way, and then they turn out to be another, or think something else. Whether messy or well-groomed, I want my back yard to look like my front yard. I want the person you meet in church on Sunday to be the same person you see in the park on Monday or in the store on Tuesday.

I suspect this is how we are supposed to be. That's how God is..."no shadow of turning". So, do you come up peanuts no matter how you are sliced?