What's Up With That? ~ Katy Byrne

Katy Byrne Katy Byrne, MFT is a Psychotherapist in Sonoma, editor and animal lover. Her private practice specializes in: life transitions, couples communication, eating issues, moving forward, conflict resolution and the kitchen sink.

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All wrung out

Posted on March 3, 2021 by Katy Byrne

I know this sounds silly, especially in these trying times, but I ran my hand around and around inside the dryer. I looked behind it, I stared into the hamper. Nothing. Where the hell was the other sock? 

I know everyone has lost socks. But where do they go? So many forlorn singles in your drawer – whatever happened to sticking together? I guess people break up after going round and round through the wringer. So it makes some sense that socks get divorced. But these just split. I mean, they completely disappear without a word. Just when I want to clean them up. 

Did I put my foot in it? Say something wrong? Hold them too tight? Wear them out or what? I couldn’t help wondering, did abandonment just happen to me or was I getting paranoid? Was this another twist of fate teaching me something? 

I really loved that last pair… warm and cozy, cute to boot. I invested time and money picking out these last foot warmers. I couldn’t even write or text them to ask where they went and why. There was no closure.

Seems ludicrous, but I really needed them to snuggle with on a cold winter night. Do you think one was politically right, the other left, and they just couldn’t get along? Did I have a habit of choosing socks the way I do men? Just when you’re enjoying the fit, they flee? Or is life this unpredictable washer wringer, a vulnerable toss, and turn of unexpected loss and gain? Maybe the machine of modern-day technology creates a disappearing act for all of us – spinning in space with no real connection. Could they do extra-terrestrial travel? Or maybe they just didn’t give a darn. 

I thought of buying Velcro and sticking them together, like a small wedding ceremony, but those can be unpredictable too I suppose. I even looked it up, and according to different studies, the average person loses approximately 15 socks over the course of their lifetime. The research shows that if you clean the lint trap carefully, socks can slide behind it or they slip through a black hole void or creep into the yawning abyss of the laundry drum in heat rotations, some even pine away under the bed. Perhaps we all need a fresh start, getting rid of fuzzy hairballs hidden in our drawers and minds.

It’s a forehead-slapping moment. Unresolved questions like this are like coitus interruptus. Instead of going for a spin and having some fun, one sock flew the coop. 

Here’s the real question: how can we start cooperating instead of splintering apart, competing or attacking each other? Isn’t there enough divisiveness, fragmentation and isolation in this whirlwind world?  Can we value and be more pro-active and engaged in reconciliations? Are we like the sock that took off, disengaged, staring at our cell phones when we’re needed in relationships, in community, using our abilities to contribute to unity? Author Robert Putnam believes the public is pursuing their own self-interests, undermining our national ability to pull together as a collective whole. 

Help this spinning world, stop using plastic cups or volunteer or do something daily to turn it around. Pull up your socks and clean up your acts.

 



One thought on “All wrung out

  1. I finally figured it out, they end up going into other things like pants or shirts and so they get folded up into them, then when you put them on you may not notice them and they either work themself out in your day or say in pants they end up skittering under the bed or couch when you put them on.

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