Cutting The Rug

Last week on Ash Wednesday, I was invited to a first-ever-for-me visit to a United Methodist church service. I was in Richmond, VA, staying with great friends. When I arranged the visit, we both forgot that it was Ash Wednesday. They politely asked me if I would go to church with them after supper. Without flinching, I said yes.

We went to the St. Matthews Church that was close to the home of my friends. The pastor, Rev. Gordon Pruitt, gave an amusing homily where he talked about capturing monkeys with a box and how he replaced the worn-out carpet in the parsonage with a new carpet.

He talked about how he had rolled up the heavy carpet and lugged it to the garage where it sat in the way as it was such a hassle to get it to the dump. The homily was about changing bad habits and his way to ignore the carpet.

It was all I could to contain myself - not knowing the protocol about raising one's hand at a Methodist service. Of course, I would never think of doing such a thing at a Catholic mass.

I wanted to tell Rev. Pruitt that all he had to do when he removed the carpet was to cut it up in place in the living room. He just had to flip over one edge of the carpet about 40 inches onto itself and the backing of the carpet would be right there.

The backing would be elevated off the floor and using a sharp razor knife he could easily have cut the carpet into manageable 3-foot strips that could be rolled up, secured with twine or duct tape and easily put in the trunk of a car to take to the dump or recycling facility.

Don't let this happen to you. Don't break your back trying to carry the entire carpet out of the house. Only take it out in one piece if you know the old rug can be cleaned and reused by someone else.