It’s probably the kindergarten teacher in me, but I think all our lives we are playing one giant game of Freeze Tag.
You remember that game? When you are tagged, you freeze instantly, stuck mid-stride until someone touches you to unfreeze you. The person who froze you may have snuck up on you from behind and taken you off-guard, or you may have seen him or her coming, but one way or the other, your running suddenly stops, and you are still. Other players are running around you, laughing, shouting, but you are in one place, sweat trickling down your face, heart beating wildly, unable to free yourself, but wanting to be in the game again.
Finally others see your predicament and come to your rescue. They reach for you. At their touch, you reenter the game. It doesn’t matter exactly how they touched you, whether tapping lightly or slapping hard. What matters is that they noticed you and did something about it. With their contact, you had what you needed to start again.
So as long as the game lasts, you are alternately stuck or helping others get unstuck. Likely you learn a few tricks — twirling or ducking out of reach, say — which help you avoid being out of commission as often as you might have been. But you know sooner or later you are going to be sidelined, and sooner or later you are going to need contact with someone else to move again.
I realize this is an elementary example — what else can you expect from a kindergarten teacher — but I mention it because I’ve been rereading notes, looking at pictures, and marveling again how simple touches through thoughtful gestures helped me move again. And how they still help!
Each is ‘the touch that starts the thaw’ (to quote my favorite Sara Groves). Because others reached out to me in my distress, I learned to play again. I was enabled to laugh and feel and think and put one foot in front of the other again. And even when I am sad and on low-battery, I know I am prayed for and cared for and reached-out-to.
This is a huge realization! It changes the direction of the game completely!
