COMMENTARY: Introducing The Sloth

Editor’s note: “The Sloth” will be featured as a regular guest contributor to The Herald. The Sloth’s views on life, love, and living in your respective communities will hopefully bring a small amount of solace to your hectic, and often stressful life. 

 

I’ve been trying to think of the right title for my writing and wanted to try it with readers.
The title that seems to fit me is The Sloth.  What? Why?

Is it because both the sloth and I are incredibly cute?  Well, anybody who’s seen me, knows that’s a long way from the truth.

Is it because the 3-toed sloth and I both move very slowly?  Now we’re getting close.  I was a big fat nerd for most of my public-school life, (the last one in every race), with few close friends and a Texas accent.  But that changed for me and really doesn’t fit well.

But, the idea of Sloth, came to me in recent weeks when I broke my left femur, was operated on, and was in recovery after the operation.  I simply could not move much of my body without a lot of pain.  I moved like a sloth, with arms and legs barely moving to avoid the pain.  I told my wife Marty I felt like a sloth, and she laughed.  I love laughter.

So why the sloth?  I got to thinking of the critter and wondered how the heck did it survive in the wild when it couldn’t move quickly and had few obvious weapons to defend itself in a jungle environment with lots of well-armed, lightning quick, sharp-toothed predators? The sloth adapted through the evolutionary process and took to the trees, with long gangly strong forearms and powerful front claws to swing through the trees.  It still gets killed by large cat species and even predatory birds.  But it can be hard to catch when it’s on weak tree limbs and from air attacks with cover from the forest canopy.  Surprisingly, the sloth can swim well, even in a strong current.

The sloth adapted through mutation and the evolutionary process.  The drive to live and survive was just as strong in the sloth as it was for humans who transformed from the apes to the primates we are today.  A truly stunning process that in my mind has confirmed my faith in a God that love’s life, growth and transformation.

There’s one other lesson for me.  No matter how odd, how smart or how physically unattractive the reader may be, there is a niche for you in the community you live in.  It can be a painful journey for some to find that place in a ‘cruel world’.

For me, that fear and sense of rejection was overcome by loving and gentle parents who nurtured me with, in my mother’s case, a powerful belief in a loving God that never abandoned her in a life filled with loss and grief, (death of 2 children at birth and 4 good men she married who all died of health failure).  She grieved, I saw her weep, but she went forward, driven by her love for her 2 sons.

So, life can be tough, but the reader should know there is a place for you in your community.  You ‘fit’ in the puzzle, it’s just a matter of finding where.  Don’t despair, look for the love of friendships. Find faith in quiet silence and meditation to seek the source of all life and love.

We are part of a community, part of a family, and there is always a seat reserved for you at the table.