Billy Coffey
Billy Coffey

The key

August 27, 2010  

image courtesy of A Simple Country Girl, used with permission. For info on available images, please click on the image.

image courtesy of A Simple Country Girl, used with permission. For info on available images, please click on the image.

The key has been sitting here on the desk for a week now staring at me, wondering when I’m going to find some use for it. The truth is that I have no idea. No idea at all.

I found it a while back in a dresser drawer I was cleaning out. It was stuck in the back corner behind some pens, a stack of old pay stubs, and my high school ring. There’s no telling how long it had sat there, but it must have been a while. A very long while. Because try as I might, I couldn’t remember what it unlocked.

I’ve checked all the locks in the house, including the one on the shed in the backyard and the diary my daughter keeps. I’ve asked my wife if it happens to go to anything school-related and called my father to ask if it was his.

No all the way around.

It’s too big for a key to a shed or a mailbox. Not enough teeth to unlock a door. Not fancy enough to start a vehicle. Too real to fit a child’s toy.

So…what?

I don’t know. I figure I have two options here, both obvious. I can throw the key away and be done with it, thinking that if I haven’t needed it for longer than my memory allows, I likely won’t need it again. Or I can keep it. I’m leaning toward keeping it. I can’t throw the key away. Doing that will all but guarantee I will find whatever lock it fits, and that on the other side of the lock will be something I will likely need very badly.

There are a lot of people who say it’s the big moments in our lives that show us who we really are, warts and all. I’m not one of them. I think it’s the little moments that do that. Moments like this one, with me and my key.

So I stare at it and wonder. Is this all about my tendency to hang onto things and not let them go? Or is it about my subtle distrust in the shaky maxim that “everything work out fine in the end”?

Maybe it’s neither. Maybe all this proves is that I tend to think about some things a little more than I should. Regardless, it’s all very discombobulating. I feel like I have an answer to a question I don’t know how to ask.

Maybe that’s the point.

Maybe I need to consider this as something I’ve found something that I don’t really need right now but might need later. I think that alone is reason enough to hang onto it. I know this from experience.

I’ve often found some truth, some answer, only to lose it and have to go searching again. Most of the mistakes I make are ones I’ve made before and never learned from or, worse, thought I learned from but really didn’t. And there have been a lot of times I’ve been left wondering “Why in the world did I have to go through that?” only to say later on “Oh, now I understand. It was so I could handle this.” We find the keys to a lot of life’s problems long before we come across the locks.

That’s why we have to hang onto them and keep them safe. Why the struggles we have now can grow into future blessings. Because often the key to life lies more in remembering than learning.

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Comments

  • Katdish

    Yes. Hang on to that key, Billy.

    “We find the keys to a lot of life’s problems long before we come across the locks.” ~ I’ve found this to be true. My experience, anyway.

    But if you write a post about an entire drawer full of keys you can’t get rid of, I’m gonna balk, because you know I’m vehemently anti-crap.

  • http://topsy.com/www.billycoffey.com/2010/08/the-key/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Anonymous

    Twitter Trackbacks…

    …

  • http://thoughtsthatmove.blogspot.com/ Wendy

    Such a cool post. Love the application. Keys and spoons. I could never throw either away. I’m an odd bird.

    Going to tweet this after I wipe up the raspberry jam stain I just made on our couch.
    ~ Wendy

  • http://www.joannesher.com Joanne Sher

    We find the keys to a lot of life’s problems long before we come across the locks.

    OH yes. Profound (and you may think about some things more than most, but I’m GLAD. Wouldn’t get awesome posts like this otherwise.).

    Saving up those keys for sure. Super post, Billy.

  • http://www.moonboatcafe.com Cassandra Frear

    John Eldredge speaks about the importance of small moments:

    “The clue as to who we really are and why we are here comes to us through our heart’s desire. But it comes in surprising ways and often goes unnoticed or is misunderstood. Once in a while life comes together for us in a way that feels good and right and what we’ve been waiting for. These are the moments in our lives that we wish could go on forever. They aren’t necessarily the “Kodak moments,” weddings and births, and great achievements. More often than not they come in subtler, unexpected ways, as if to sneak up on us.

    “Think of the times in your life that made you wish for all the world that you had the power to make time stand still. Are they not moments of love, moments of joy? Simple moments of rest and quiet when all seems to be well. Something in your heart says, ”Finally– it has come. This is what I was made for! ‘ ”

    - John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire

  • Katdish

    Wow. Love that.

  • http://www.tonyjalicea.com Tony Alicea

    Great metaphor Billy. Sometimes it’s just about asking the right question to match the answer we already have. Thanks for sharing this.

  • http://aspiretoleadaquietlife.blogspot.com A Simple Country Girl

    What about 7 heavy-duty locks all seemingly forever clasped shut onto one another because the lock owner misplaced the one key that fits them all?

    For me, the takeaway lesson is about the little moments (because I would toss the key and just use a crowbar if the opportunity were to strike).

    “God’s medal-of-honor winners are made in secret because their most courageous acts occur-away from the hurricane of public opinion-up in the attic, hidden from public knowledge” (Charles Swindoll: The Grace of Encouragement, daily flip calendar)

    On second thought, maybe my key hopped a train across the states and ended up in your drawer. Got any displaced socks in there?

    Blessings.

  • http://sandraheskaking.com Sandra Heska King

    So I went to look up a cool key quote. Do you know how many there are? I think you need to hang on to it. It could be the key to several great essays. Like this one.

    I like this. Maybe because it’s your quote: “Because often the key to life lies more in remembering than learning.”

  • http://verymuchlater.com jake

    I have about six keys on my key ring that are completely meaningless to me right now. I seriously have no idea what they go to, but I suffer from the same problem that I know I’ll need them the minute they’re gone.

    Maybe I’ve been looking at them the wrong way though . . . :)

  • http://alexmarestaing.wordpress.com Alex Marestaing

    So true. There are countless times when the “key” comes first in our lives, so many times where things don’t make sense, the illness, the job offer that falls through, the chance meeting, until later on in life when everything becomes clear.

    Then again, we’ll never find the doors that match all our keys, at least not in this life.

  • http://joyce-fromthissideofthepond.blogspot.com Joyce

    I’m famous for ‘forgetting’ lessons and needing to re-learn. Its usually about mid point thru the re-learning that I remember. I know God must feel like an exasperated parent with me sometimes. I have to remind myself that when I feel that way about something my own kids have done I still love them with everything I have in me.

  • http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com Maureen

    It’s a good metaphor. Hang onto it.

  • http://www.endlessimpact.com jasonS

    Sometimes in that endless quest for learning we do forget to remember what we already know. Sounds convoluted, but it makes sense in my head!

    Thanks Billy…

  • http://alittleofthisandthat2.blogspot.com/ Dayle

    Thought-provoking.

  • http://sbreef.blogspot.com Sharkbait

    If you don’t throw it away, you’ll never learn how to pick a lock.

    #justsaying

  • http://thinkingtoodeeply.blogspot.com Karin

    I’ve got a handful of keys to fashion a lovely artistic display in a shadow box. That way they’ll at least serve a decorative purpose – all different shapes, ages, and sizes! We’ve moved often enough for me to know that we don’t have the locks these keys would open or close. Loved your post. I’ve had to repeat several classes in the university of life – because I didn’t get it the first time around.

  • http://www.kellylangnersauer.com/ Kelly Langner Sauer

    Your rambles are wonderful, Billy. I have missed them lately. I love the way you think.