(This blog post is for mature audiences only)
Oh, Rats!
At the ripe old age of 74 I have found (much to my dismay, I might add) that there are not many things that amaze me. If presented with something others would consider mind-bending I might reply like the oft-quoted cowpoke, “This ain’t my first rodeo.” Yep, as we grow older we have been a lot of places, seen a lot of things, and might even be a tad jaded.
But yesterday in church I found that I can still be astonished. I attend a church of mainly elders, so this experiment I am about to mention did not make us overly sad. Many of us have even had to rid our homes of rats or mice and a lot did it without shedding a tear. So, I will continue.
It was our Pastor who left me dumbfounded and totally stupefied as he began a sermon speaking of rats, and ended up making a point about “hope.”
It seems there was a scientist in the 50’s named Curt Richter who did some experimentation with rats that yielded some pretty amazing results. Richter took some rats that were above average in the swimming department, placed them in buckets of water, and even those rats that swam fairly well, drowned within a few minutes.
In a second experiment Richter would pull each rat out just as it was about to give up because it had become exhausted. The scientist would let them rest a bit, and return them to the bucket. Now, here’s the amazing part—they swam, my pastor stated, up to 36 hours! (In doing my research, I found some even lasted up to 60 hours!) See what I mean, stupefying!!!
But just why did these miraculous rodents tread water much more skillfully than they had before?
Because “the rats now believed that if they continued to push forward with enough effort put forth, eventually they would be rescued once again.”* And voilà, you have that wonderful, sustaining, under-girding word that can serve as verb OR noun—HOPE! You know, “the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul”—according to Emily Dickinson** Hope is the human trait we would love to nurture and keep with us all the time. In the Merriam Webster Dictionary “hope” is defined as “desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment.”
And then after being awestruck, and feeling stupefied, I just as suddenly felt ashamed. For I was not sure I could adapt as quickly as the rats. Could it be that a mere rat had the ability to beat me at something so important? I thought of 36 or 60 hours and wondered if I would indeed make it for a solitary hour in the swirling vat.
Folks, I have chewed on that sermon for over a day now, and I still am awestruck with the mere rat, and still a bit ashamed that I do not hold within me a reservoir with enough hope. “Hope” for me, has, like a bad muscle, become flabby, unhealthy—a muscle that does not serve me well.
So, back to the drawing board. I must exercise “hope,” use it, call upon it in times of gloom, or frustration or downright despair. I must say my prayers for I must prevail. You see, it's just downright embarrassing to think I could be bested by a rat!
** “Hope is the thing with feathers, by Emily Dickinson
Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -”