By Clyde

A lot of things are connected — dots, bones, wires, hallways, triggers and links of a chain.

The jumper cable went into a bar and the bartender said, “I’ll serve you a drink, but don’t try to start anything in here.” The hip bone is connected to the leg bone, and the leg bone is connected to the thigh bone.

Metatarsals and metacarpals help point out the connections we make and the disconnects we fail to see. Some are painful like rheumatism into our bones. They say opposites attract, which is just an excuse for those who don’t get along but are afraid to admit it. Train cars that come uncoupled make for movies that keep you on the edge of your seat. Like people, it always ends where the bridge is out.

Alas, connected by marriage is not what it used to be. Often hyphenated so they can get out of it easier, what do you do to replace the fuses and keep the terminals from getting rusty? Where is the spark?

“What God has joined together; Let no man put asunder,” the saying goes.

Nowadays, with all the gender choices, it stretches the mind to wonder “how does it know?” Just when we had it made.

Pennsylvania Dutch, “Germans,” had a custom known as “bundling” where they placed a board between the unmarried couples to keep them separate in bed.

Hum, maybe that’s why we get the word overboard.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seem to show up everywhere together. Were they partners at the crime scene?

Some people are born connected. The most infamous conjoined twins were Cheng and Eng Bunker from Mt. Airy. Related to the Bunker’s Bookstore folks, they arrived, yes immigrants, with no name except for right and left in Siamese.

Rumor is they used the name of the man in line with them for their last name. Talk about having connections. They were married to sisters, had 21 children between them and lived at each other’s houses for three days at a time. They could chop wood with all four hands on an axe.

In 1874, when Chang died, the other one hung for over an hour. Why did they move to England for a time? So the other one could drive for a while.

Old people say “they are joined at the hip” about couples who need to hold each other up when they walk around downtown.

Ephesians 4:16 says, “From whom the whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by which every joint supplieth, accoding to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

Most people, not just Yankees, promote, profess and practice polarization. “Concentration about opposing extremes of groups or interest formerly ranged on a continuum.” Fifty shades of good to bad. Where are you on that scale?

When you do finally decide to “get hooked,” there seems to be a lot of loose ends that come along with it. It’s like baggage with no handles.

A lot of people would give anything to be connected to the right family. Marry the princess and move into the castle, Prince Jonathan.

“Ask thou not my name; no one can be more wise than destiny. Many drew swords and died. Wherever I came, I brought calamity.”

Connections are made over a lifetime and destroyed in minutes, on a collision course so to speak. Often, it’s without saying a word. Some people don’t want to belong to anything or anyone. Membership in clubs or organizations makes you feel connected. Yankees will join anything for free, home-cooked southern fare. They say a good funeral has to have slaw and devlied eggs. Who do you know that still does that? Can you hook me up with them?

“Bless be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love, the fellowship of kindred minds.”

So, hook up, but be careful. One things leads to another.

Join a group. Cherish those fine lines of communications like gold. Reunite with old friends. Get yo’ self loose from those ties that hold you down.

Stay connected to the past but risk a little toe stepping into the tomorrows that come your way.

Clyde lives in Salisbury.