THE THOUGHT TODAY17 / 07 / 08

The Spirit of “Wappy” Proverbs 6: 6-8 and Proverbs 30: 24-27 Proverbs 6: 6-8 “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.”

While growing up as a child in Richland Park there was a card game called locally “Wappy”. It was most often played by persons who were generally considered idle, lazy, lovers of pleasure more than hard work, inclined to steal, and who roamed the village day or night in pursuit of leisure or gain. Some hard working people also played the game but they were fleeced, more often than not, by the more proficient players. Many families suffered because small weekly family earnings were lost in the Wappy games.

This game was illegal and police would arrest persons caught in the act. It was therefore played in banana fields and hideaway spots, near bye ways and places that allowed for easy escape from random police patrols. If “Wappy” were played today in the same places the police would catch the culprits easily. Most of the banana fields are gone and we are left today with open spaces in villages where little is grown, consistently, on potentially fertile soil. The same spots and trails are now frequented and used by the “coke man” who peddle or use the drugs. For them, these tracks and spaces provide easy passage for stolen goods whether agricultural or otherwise.

The game was most often played with persons sitting on the ground. When a player lost his money he would get up, brush off the seat of his pants to clear any dirt or evidence of his playing and move on. The day’s activity was forgotten and thrown behind by that symbolic act which marked a move on to something else. More often than not the player comes back again to play another time in the hope that the next time his luck will change.

My Reflection Today is that we consider the way of the sluggard and be wise. Good often comes out of evil and adversity. The “Spirit of Wappy” is the consistent brushing off the seat of the pants after failure or adversity and returning to try again. Today as we face our many challenges, sometimes we win sometimes we lose. Sometimes we give up. Sometimes we persist with ways and habits that lead us nowhere new. But many stories also abound where success comes because the player / person is prepared to try and fail and try again and again until the goal is won for better or worse.

Proverbs 30:24 (There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.)

Today.

Ashley R Cain (As you care, share The Thought Today)