February 6^th, 2020

Pulling the Plug, Putting it to Rest

After my retirement lunch it occurred to me there were two expressions for ending something. The first, ‘pull the plug,’ I took to mean ending something because it wasn’t likely to get better.  I didn’t want to think I was pulling the plug on my career.

Some people see the second expression ‘put it to rest’ as the sadder of the two.  People use it to say they’ve stopped something that shouldn’t have started in the first place. ‘I hope we put that rumor to rest.’ Some people say ‘put it to rest’ reminds them of ‘put to sleep.’ They think of pets they’ve lost.

I’ve always thought ‘put it to rest’ meant doing the right thing at the right time.  When something is good, I hoped to enjoy it right up until the right time to stop. I had been working the same job for twenty good years. It was time to stop, time to put it to rest.

Over the years I’d been forced to put to sleep dogs and cats I loved. I thought I had done so at the right time. I never wanted to prolong their suffering to postpone my grief. 

Too many people I knew prolonged their suffering by not pulling the plug on their drinking. 

Today I hope I’ll know when it’s time to put it to rest.

2020 Vision ©2017 by Ken Montrose

2020 Vision is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/