Life’s Pesty Hang-ups

This morning was my day to take my clothes to the laundry.  I separated the shirts from the slacks and folded them into a pile to carry.   I always return the clothes hangers.  Now up home some folks say cloak hanger, coat hanger, or plain hanger.  I collected them separating the slack hangers from the shirt hangers.  It never ceases to amaze me how they can get tangled.

When I try to hang our clothes in the washroom, which not big enough to “cuss a cat,” those demon hangers want to join together and hold hands, I mean hooks.  It never fails in my effort to get one hanger that three will fall on the floor.  Did I say that the laundry room was small, just enough room to stand between the wall and the washer and dryer?

This morning these pesky hangers hooked up in the bedroom, just outside the place where they hang out with my clothes.  The hangers have this uncanny way of deciding which shirt and sweater that I am going to wear.  I reached for a white shirt, the hanger for the blue striped shirt got in front of the white shirt hanger.  It was like it was saying, “Take me, take me.”  I want to believe there is a tiny clothes hanger gremlin that mixes up the hangers while I shower.

When I get the clothes ready for the cleaners, I routinely place the hangers between the folded shirts and folded slacks to prevent them for being tangled and sliding everywhere.  I have yet to be successful.  First, the hangers are accustomed to hanging with the clothes, not smothered between them.  It is as though I have trapped them, and they search for the just the right moment to escape.  I want to think that I have them in the wrong order with the shirt hangers against the slacks and they are trying to hang with the right article of clothing.

One time the hangers tried to make a daring escape when I got them out of the truck.  They scattered all over the sidewalk in front of the cleaners.  Another time they escaped when I tried to load them to go to the cleaners.  Their escaping just leads to entanglement.

I wish that the shirt hanger and the slack hanger could be like the plastic hangers from clothing departments.  These have swivel hooks, but the plastic ends are subject to break when under pressure.

Some store-bought plastic hangers are various colors.  Their hooks are hard to remove from the closet rod.  They are independent cusses and are harder to hold together.  They are durable, but unlike the metal hangers, they are limited in practicality.

Metal hangers have a variety of uses.  I have used clothes hangers to hold exhaust pipes in place.  The wire is perfect to use in most redneck situations.  They even make a great tool to unlock car doors.  I have used them for welding.  A good hanger and acetylene torch set to the right flame can weld broken car frames, lawn mower decks, and wrought iron.  I have used clothes hangers as a short set of jumper cables.  When using them as jumper cables, make sure you have a solid connection.  The wire does get hot.

There is another hook that can more tangled than clothes hanger hooks and that is fishing hooks.  They are so jealous of one another.  Every time you try to get one to tie on a line, they hang together.  They are one for all and all for one.

They can be testy also.  When you try to separate them, they have been known to bite.  Their bite can hurt too.  When they do bite, they have a tenacity to hold on tight and must be removed by cutting them out.

Every time I think about fishhooks, I think of red worms.  Trying to put a red worm on a hook can be challenging.  Once you have threaded a worm or two on the hook you must cast with care, or you will have to thread more worms on the hook.  Dad used to tell us not to cast too hard because we were feeding worms to the bass and bream.

When I think of fishhooks, I think of Amos 4:1-2 in the Old Testament.  He calls the uppity women cows, we say heifer up home, and says that because of their sin they will be led to captivity with hooks. 

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, "Bring us some drinks!"  The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness: "The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.  

One commentary said the hooks would be in their noses. This became very vivid when I had to remove a hook from a nose.  I remember one Saturday we were fishing at my sister’s pond when my niece hooked my son Aaron’s nose with a hook.  Aaron didn’t cry but he encouraged me to hurry.  The red worms were tickling his nostril.  I cut off the barb and slid the hook off his nose.

Amos’ passage illustrates how tangled our lives can get with sin.  Sin, like pesky clothes hangers and fishing hooks, has a way of hooking us and causing all sorts of entanglements.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1 KJV).