Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. – Proverbs 4:7.

Pinpointing the manhole

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the laying of underground cables? Beyond the digging up of roads and obstruction of traffic, that is? Well, I work for an organization whose activities include designing duct schemes to allow the installation of cables beneath the road surface. Believe me, there’s science involved! The duct schemes require manholes to facilitate the installation of the cables.  In order to guide the construction department, by way of a plan, of the exact location of these manholes, there is a requirement for a Three Point Measurement (TPM).  This TPM is the distance taken from three, different permanent points, and the point at which these three lines intersect is the desired location of the manhole.

Now what has TPM to do with women or dogs? Nothing. But it has plenty to do with me, the author. I was divorced in 2005 after 10 years of marriage of which 3 of them we were separated.  The separation did not occur because of anything that either of us did but because my husband then was sent to jail.  During that forced separation many things were revealed to me and I was forced to face what type of man he really was.  In that time I relied very heavily on the word of God for his comfort and in it was during those days that I really learnt to pray without ceasing and to be still and know that he is God (Psalms 46:10).

I was always in the habit of questioning why things happen and waiting for the answers sometimes many years.  After that I came up with a theory.  Of Women and Dogs: Human Actions at the “Point of Contact” is just another question that I had and another theory that I believe to be true.  The question of why some relationships work so well and why some seem destine to fail arose after my separation and people had loads of opinions including that it had to be something that I did not do that caused the relationship to fail.  Of course I never believed that for one moment but as a learning experience I questioned it.

 During the separation period two men took an interest in me, at different times, and we started to talk, getting to know who and what this other human being was like. All three made an impact on my life. If you are honest you will admit that people that come into your life and stay and those who leave all make impacts on your life.  Unfortunately we do not always realize this. They did not know each other, they were all very different (in nature, education, social status, job status, and belief systems), but all three of them thought it necessary to say the same thing about me and to me.  The impact of what they were saying and the recognition that they were saying the same thing, albeit in different ways, forced me to stop and analyze myself.  Around that time I remembered the TPM manhole requirement (I actually did!) and I had to admit that maybe they were telling me who I really was or, at least, how I behaved in a relationship.  If they all saw the same things in me, could what they were saying really be true about me?

What was it they were saying about me, you ask? Believe it or not, it had to do with my smile, or lack of!