Shoulder Work

February 11, 2015
Day 287

I remember the first time I saw one of those street signs: no shoulder, shoulder work, soft shoulder, narrow shoulder, and so on.  "What does that mean?" I asked my mom.  It seemed like such an odd phrase to use for something that lines a road, yet I eventually came to see how appropriate it really is.  Sometimes we all need a shoulder, don't we?

In times of great sadness and pain, I've enjoyed the shoulders my loved ones have let me cry on, and other times, I've needed to stand on someone's shoulders, either literally or figuratively.  We try to shoulder someone else's pain, too, or be head and shoulders above the rest.  All of these shoulders in life, all of these ways we take on a trouble from someone else, or unload our troubles onto others.

All of this, in one way or another, is shoulder work.  We put in the time to help someone, just as we would help someone change a flat tire on the shoulder of a roadway, or we offer someone our own shoulder, letting them rest their weary souls on the soft shoulder we provide.  It's an easy kind of work when the situation calls for it, but other times, going that extra mile really is a challenge. 

Along the highways of this world, a sign reading soft shoulder, no shoulder, or shoulder work tells us to be careful.  The shoulder may not always be there for us when we need it.  Someone might be giving us the cold shoulder, just when we needed the opposite.  It can hurt, just like a sore shoulder does, and a person's apathy toward us, or our own toward someone else, can be its own painful experience.  A shrug of the shoulders says, "I don't care" in the meanest of ways.

The option is ours, as it always has been: what kind of shoulders do we wish to offer the world?  Do we take on the pain and burden of others onto our shoulders, or do we turn a shoulder away from that which may hurt us?  Do we hold a chip on our shoulders, or do we stand shoulder to shoulder with those in need?  I suppose it all depends on whether we have a good head on our shoulders.  Should we or shouldn't we?  The choice is ours: how much effort shoulder we put in?