Cruise…

So where is this going. Is this about Tom? Is it about Penelope? Is it about the little shifter that controls the speed on the highway?

You know what I wonder. I wonder if those people on the cruise ship that couldn’t dock over the last week or two took it personally.

They weren’t allowed to port anywhere. The Governor of Florida said he didn’t want sick passengers “dumped” in his state. It was a cruise around South America, it wasn’t even supposed to come to the U.S. It was supposed to dock in Buenos Aires. The Panama Canal almost didn’t let them through. Other ports refused to let them dock and get people off the boat. People died on the boat.

But did they take it personally. Did the captain and crew feel personally rejected? Did they feel alone and unwanted personally? Did the passengers? Did they feel rejected and devalued? I’m certain if you were to walk through their brain and listen to the thoughts they would have the rational thought of the fact that certain ports aren’t equipped to handle a “hot zone”.

But what if you walked through their emotions? Did they feel unwanted? And if one of those passengers would have told a friend or family member on shore somewhere that that’s how they were feeling, how would they have responded?

Would they have said, “That’s not true! That’s a lie from the pit of hell. You are wanted, we just need to see what port is equipped to take the boat”. Probably. And I get it. I have done it. I don’t want loved ones to feel negative things. But does that help? While it’s true that their emotions are not to be trusted at that point to guide them to action, they simply can’t be dismissed as a “lie”. Yes our emotions lie to us and the Bible talks about it “The heart is deceitful above all else”

But, if a 5 year old is in the back seat on a road trip and has to go to the bathroom he will tell you. If he is ignored then he will tell you again. Probably a little louder. If he is ignored, he will get louder and louder. Eventually he will “show you” and wet his pants.

Emotions are a powerful tool for good and evil. And sometimes those emotions just need to be understood. They just need to be validated. Because whether they can be used as a tool for action or not does not mean they aren’t real and valid emotions. Understanding them will heal them, not rejection.

A friend recently and then again yesterday essentially said to me, “I don’t know how you’ve done it all these years”. All of the sudden the voice in the backseat calmed down and wasn’t so loud. The voice that was yelling to do something about the pain. It’s because it was feeling understood and now knows that something is being done to help it.