The Cheese Stands Alone

The phrase comes from a children's song and game, "The Farmer in the Dell". A number of children stand in a circle with one child, who plays the farmer, in the center. The farmer chooses a wife, the wife chooses a child, the child choose a nurse, etc. as the children sing and walk in a circle. You get the point until the last person in the circle is "the cheese stands alone."

Although we played this on the school playground, usually supervised by a teacher, one can understand why it is no longer played. "The cheese stands alone" is a way of saying you don't fit in. You're by yourself. You're not one of us.

Even though we try to plan activities that are inclusive for all children and adults, we each have felt like the cheese. Rejection by someone or a group, isolated by a family member who no longer wants contacts, not getting an award that you felt entitled to, making our own stupid mistakes, ending up somewhere we realize that we don't belong for whatever reason, we know what it is like to be the cheese standing alone.

In the anthology, Summoned, each protagonist--Emilie Fischer or George Turner, James, Norma, Jacqueline, Adriel--found themselves in circumstances where "the cheese stands alone"--either because of life circumstances or because of their own misguided decisions.

Even Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, was abandoned by his own disciples. However, He knew His Father would never leave Him. Hebrews 13:5 reminds us, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." And, also, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" Hebrews 13:5-6

Even though rejection at some level happens in our lives, we can know that Jesus wants us to keep moving forward in faith. We are each created in His image. Because of the message of the cross, we can be strengthened; we are not the cheese standing alone, in spite of what others do or think and even in spite of our own, sometimes, thoughtless or misguided decisions.

Give God the glory.

Check out the anthology, SUMMONED, on-line at amazon or barnes and noble sites to discover how these protagonists survived real-to-life experiences and understood that their lives were a part of a far-reaching narrative--possibly something bigger and beyond their imaginations.