Description

“Arguing can be good for a relationship, for a marriage, for a family!”
“The fun of making up enriches the relationship experience, and actually a family which has never argued is missing a great opportunity to expand their love base.”

We’ve heard it all, read it all; TV, movies, bestseller books, advice for the lovelorn, marriage counselors and even the ultimate in marriage psychologists praise the “making up” process.

Ask people you know: “What are your three most vivid, lasting relational memories? At least one will likely be a very pleasant, smile-generating memory. But, at the very least, one memory brings a frown as the reminders are generated, resulting in a cutting response, an unpleasant memory.

The seeds of this story came to me many years ago, from a source(s) which, sorry to say, my recollection can no longer collect. My thanks and appreciation for the person or persons who sent this inspiration to me, likely dozens of years ago.

 Cast: 1
Run-Time: 5
 Sound: Mic
Costumes: Regular
 SFX: Sound of hammer hitting nail
Props: Hammer, large nail (spike)
Bible Reference: John 15:12

Special Information: Vocal sincerity is extremely important, the audience must clearly hear the heights of delight and the depths of disappointment and hurt. Ensure that there is at least a two-beat “thought process’ pause when going back and forth between emotions.

Sample Script

Many years ago a young boy, named “Younger” . .  in the “youth of young,” lived all alone with his mother, a woman named “Aline,” who lived alone, in her “aloneness of alone” with her son, Younger, the one in the “youth of his youth.”

Back in the day, Younger was in a destructive mood, annoyed with some now forgotten something his Mother, Aline, in her aloneness of alone, had apparently done.

So when his old neighbor, Mr. Holder, put up a gorgeous new fence, Younger, in his “acting out” took hammer and nails and pounded nails in Mr. Holder’s fence. . .

In fact, Younger, every day, hammered nails until Mr. Holder’s fence was covered with nails.

The patient Mr. Holder had asked the boy to stop but the angry Younger refused to do so, even said he would never remove the nails unless Mr. Holder paid him a quarter for every nail he removed.

Mr. Holder agreed, so Younger started the very difficult job of pulling the nails out.

After several weeks Younger had every nail removed, so Mr. Holder paid Younger a quarter for every nail removed.

But now the once beautiful fence was an eyesore, an ugly mess of nail holes, splinters, and marks from where the hammer had missed the nail and hit the pitiful board.

Just as Younger was about to walk away with the pail of quarters, Mr. Holder called out to him with a much more attractive deal:

“I will trade you a million dollars for that bucket of quarters if you can make my fence as good as new.”

Excited, Younger agreed, and eagerly began the long job of making the fence new again. But after many frustrating days and weeks of trying to repair that once awesome fence, Younger, now a young man, with tears in his eyes approached the now very old Mr. Holder, admitting there was no way the fence could be returned to it’s once glory.

Problem was, Younger’s hard work had mostly covered over the holes made by the sharp, piercing nails. But thing was, the cracks in the wood, the splinters forced to the ground from the wounded wood, all this caused marks of brokenness which simply would not be covered over.

The old man, embracing his young friend, now matched the tears of the younger with tears in his own eyes, saying:

“Here are the quarters I bargained, you earned them!”

But the young man knelt at the feet of Mr. Holder, begging him:

“You are a very wise man, isn’t there a way you can fix the fence?”

The old man, Mr. Holder, kissed Younger’s cheek saying, “Look at the fence!”