I have a confession to make, and it is that after most of my life wearing a belt around my waist I have now started to also wear braces. Whether this is because my waist is not what it was (or where it was) readers can decide, but my decision came about as a result of my working trousers being in constant need of adjustment whenever I was doing jobs around the farm buildings, and most particularly when dagging or drenching the sheep, or jumping on and off the tractor.
I finally got fed up with having to carry out the necessary adjustments and so in July whilst at the Royal Welsh Show, I threw caution to the winds and splashed out on a pair of sober looking braces. I could have gone for bright yellow or a gaudily styled pair more suited to Jon Snow of Channel Four, but my instincts led me to a dark autumnal russet more in keeping with my age.
My wife affected not to notice this sartorial addition to my wardrobe but the effects on my life have been dramatic. As soon as I put on my working clothes of checked shirt and corduroys I feel energised and I take on the identity of the time when I used to leap off the hay cart without a care in the world. I am back in the days of my childhood when the sun always shone and a cheese sandwich and bottle of water would be sufficient for a day playing in the fields.
However, a few days ago, I began to feel a certain strain in the lower back, and the question of braces popped into to mind. For a couple of weeks I had noticed that I had been adjusting the braces a couple of times a day and began to wonder if the straps were beginning to lose their elasticity. Putting aside the notion that modern Chinese made braces were inferior to the British braces of yester-year, my mind then wandered to the old saying of “belt and braces” as meaning a doubling up for purposes of safety.
For the previous few days, in order to keep my trousers up, I had been tightening the straps and the more I did so the worse the back grumbled, and so I was moved to question the role of braces; Are they there to keep the trousers up, or are they there to stop the trousers from falling down? As I pondered this existential conundrum the answer came: Braces are not there to hold trousers up. Their purpose is to stop them falling down!
I had the key to spinal relief. Instantly, I lengthened the braces to reduce the pressure from the elastic which was effectively trying to squash my back bone. Loosening the straps took the upward pressure away so that the trousers could now hang from my shoulders. This left the elastic to do its job which is to allow the trousers to flex up and down as the body moves.
The example above, of how we can look at something which seems obvious and yet not draw the correct conclusion, is illustrated by the story of the Vicar from Yorkshire. He completed his sermon about old testament rulers by asking the congregation a question: We have seen how powerful Kings and Queens are, but there is a power higher than them: does anyone know what it is?
A hand shot up and the reply, from a young chap in the third row, echoed down the nave as he replied …….
“ Is it the Ace? ”
View from the Pew 