Various

Teaching vocabulary, I would often say,”This is one of my favorite words,” until a student interrupted, ‘Aw, Mrs. Smith, you just like every word.” Out of the mouth of babes as the saying goes. A sentence or a conversation is limping along and then commodious, impetuous, or nonchalantly illuminate the moment. A variety of choices can arise that bestow light on a dark place.

The seven unique letters of various exist to render clone unnecessary. Joan Jonas’s exhibit in the MOMA used a series of mirrors in front of her presentations, so all I kept seeing was a repetition of me. Soon disinterest and boredom set in. Morning routine can carry me to coffee as a habit. One day I long for something more: I dress early, walk four blocks, and order a cup in a different location. Varying order to waking up opens up a whole new possibility for the day.

We tend to choose friends we mesh with. Activities don’t require negotiating, Topics to discuss can be picked up and laid down and returned to without losing the main idea. A different person asks to sit at your table and the kaleidoscope shifts. You laugh more or find yourself finishing each others’ sentences. The variety they insert is invigorating.

Various denotes thinking outside the box. A story and an adage. I visited a hospitalized friend who had lost her phone in her bed. We did the usual. We patted and lifted sheets to no avail. The light went on in my head. I dug in my purse for my phone and dialed her number. The ring took us to the right place. After stuggling to solve a problem, someone offers the maybe even outlandish solution that works and my daddy would then say, “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” God, in wisdom, didn’t think one size fit all. Various counts.

For the body is not one member, but many.

1 Corinthians 12:14