Photo by: David Panevin

Conventional wisdom reminds us that there is often more than one way to do something. The point is that it doesn’t make much sense to get stuck on our own way of how we want to do it if we agree on what it is that needs to get done.

Yet to make the point, I’ve often mindlessly said, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

All of a sudden the other day, it hit me. What did I just say?! How would those words be heard by someone who had a pet cat? And where in the world did we come up with such a saying?

So I asked some friends who I thought might have a cat how the phrase hit them. They admitted to thinking more about it than I had :-)… One later sent me a link to “World Wide Words” that at least provided some background on the phrase. What I learned is that there was also a similar saying about dogs (Something like “there’s more than one way to hang a dog”).

While I’m still left with questions, I’ve been reminded of how easy it is to say something that is more painful for some to hear than for me to say.  Yes, sometimes we need to say hard things, in love. But what I’ve realized once again is that sometimes we just say things– without thinking about their implication for others.

True? Yes. Full of grace? That could be another matter.

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