"That dog won't hunt."

I love being southern. Ingrained in my "make-up" are things like grits and gravy, collard greens, "yes ma'am and no-sir", and of course, country music. One of my favorite things about being southern is the use of colloquialisms in our everyday conversation. Sentences like " That dog won't hunt", which refers to any unworkable situation, such as dragging your "bird" dog out into the field, and discovering that he has suddenly had an acute attack of conscience, and now refuses to "bird". Or maybe this one: That _____, ( insert noun of choice) was fit to be tied."  This one indicates a state of perplexity approaching "shock and awe".... Where it comes from, I have no idea.

My favorite one is one my Mother's Father was fond of using. I often heard him use this one in describing certain " churches", or "Christians" whose performance was deemed not to be " Up to snuff" ( What does that one mean?!) by whomever he happened to be conversing with. Inevitably, Grandpa would hear about someone doing something " UN-christian", and he would slowly shake his head and say: " You can write hen-house over the door, but that don't mean there's any chickens inside." I always assumed this was a commentary on hypocrisy, until I stopped to remember Grand-pa's story.

Just for background purposes, He had grown up during the era of the great depression, to a family which consisted in part of 12 siblings... That's a lot I know, but one has to remember that there weren't a whole lot of entertainment options in those days.
  Lacking the most basic of necessities was common place, and doing without was just a way of life. I can't imagine what it was like back then, when hope was scarse, and hard work was made less tolerable by an empty belly. I imagined the first time a runny nosed, barefoot, little kid in the foothills of Virginia heard those words, and what caused him to commit them to memory.

Maybe the saying is less about people pretending to be something they are not, and more about a little boys' hopefulness that there's an answer for the hunger he and the rest of the nation are feeling... and that in a world full of empty " hen-houses" somewhere out there, there's one with some chickens inside.
Maybe I should view Gramps' words not as a justification for criticism, but as an admonition to make sure if I am writing "hen-house" over my door, when a hungry, little, tow-headed boy comes sniffing around he is delighted to find that there is hope, and that despite previous disappointments, that here, at last, there are chickens inside.

"FORREST WAS RIGHT."

"... Momma says you can tell alot 'bout people by they shoes. Where they goin'.... Where they been. Momma was a smart woman." -- Forrest Gump, esq.


Forrest was right. You can tell a lot about people just by looking at their shoes. Think about shoes for just a minute. Sometimes shoes tell us who a person is... When you think about a construction worker, does your mind picture heavy steel toed boots ? Firefighters in our "side zip" station boots ? How about nurses ? Personally, I can't think of anything other than those shoes that look like rocking chairs ( Shape- ups ?) or maybe crocs... when I draw a mental image of any medical professional. OK, Phil, we get it... The investment banker doesn't head off to his "9-to-5"  in hiking boots, and the park ranger at Yosemite doesn't wear wingtips to work... what's your point ?

Glad you asked.

Shoes help us identify more than just an individuals profession. Shoes tell us what someone is "fixin' " ( southern word, adv. means the same thing as "about to".) to do. They speak about someone's activity. A hiker's boots say he is trail bound, the jogger's light weight sneaker means he's "fixin" to run. Slip on dress shoes, and you're headed to something besides physical activity, maybe business or church.

fossilized human footprints

What's most interesting is not so much the shoes, and what they say about the wearer, and his or her activity,  but how they transfer the identity of the wearer to the environment. Each shoe has unique characteristics, and will leave a unique footprint... a footprint specific to the wearer. A man with a limp will tend to drag the affected extremity, smudging the print on that side, and and creating a drag mark as the foot leaves the front of the print. ( LAW AND ORDER, baby.) The runner's stride opens the distance between prints, and the push off from the toes digs an even deeper impression into the turf. In this way, we can tell as much about the wearer by the prints they left, as we can by the individuals selection of footwear.

Sometimes footprints are transient, like in the sugary sand of low tide,  sometimes permanent like this picture . Scientists were astonished to discover these... laid down in the same mud as dinosaur prints. Interesting, no ?
As we navigate through life, we too leave footprints along the way, indelible impressions on our environment, impressions on the souls around us. Think of every interaction between ourselves and other people as a " footprint". What are your prints saying about you ?

A few days ago I left a foot print... a young man said something I took objection to, and I retaliated by " jumping on him with both feet". ( not literally) I later realized that the footprint I had left didn't say that "a christian has come this way."... quite the opposite. Instead of an even steady gait, it was hurried, messy... digging deeply into someone elses turf, and leaving them with an impression of me that will most likely hang around a while. I regret it, but like a real footprint, it's hard to hide once the impression is there.