The downstairs of our house these days looks like a showroom for the Rug Palace.
I recently went through the kitchen, foyer and living room counting just how many rugs are down on those floors and came up with an astonishing number:
18.
Several of the rugs are Oriental. Others are long and really should be called runners, I guess.
We have one rug that’s shaped like a pear. Another I would describe as a rag rug. Yet another is a braided oval.
I noticed ó maybe for the first time ó that rugs often incorporate leaves, flowers and fruit as part of their designs. At least ours do.
One rug is actually a multi-colored comforter my wife threw down near a front window.
Why 18 rugs?
We have an old dog named Flash. We’re not exactly sure of his age ó it’s in the 13- to 15-year-old range ó but Flash doesn’t move with the speed of light any longer. In fact, if he slips on the kitchen’s slick linoleum or the hardwood floors in the rest of the downstairs, he can’t readily return to his feet without help.
Hence the rugs. They give Flash safe passage from the kitchen door leading into the garage to the living room door opening onto the back deck. A couple of rugs also branch off toward the front door, or to his pillow beds next to the television.
Flash doesn’t have a lot of years left, so we don’t mind living at the Rug Palace. A weird thing has happened, however. As with Flash, my wife and I find that we seldom get off the path of rugs that wind through the house.
We aren’t consciously deciding to stay on the rugs, but we can’t help it. It’s as though we might fall off a cliff or into deep water if we dare step off the rug trail. Even folks who have come to visit us ask if they must stay on the path.
In recent weeks, the newspaper has written almost daily about local layoffs or plant closures.
We become insensitive in delivering the news, of course. The stories always deal with numbers and explanations from the companies that the unprecedented economic times have forced them to streamline, make marketplace adjustments and reduce their workforce accordingly.
Meanwhile, Rowan County’s unemployment rate approaches 10 percent, and the more you talk to the people who are out of work, the more you realize how scary it is for them.
First, where will they find new jobs? That’s scary enough. Second, do they have the skills needed for the few jobs that might be available?
Once you walk on a career path for a long time, it’s difficult to change course and reinvent yourself. Much of our self-esteem becomes tied to the jobs we have. Take that away ó and it keeps happening with regularity ó and it’s a lot like Flash stepping off the Rug Palace trail.
He might fall down.
The key is for someone to be there to pull him up and scrounge around for rug No. 19.