The International Society of Curmudgeons would like to remind people that October 15th is National Curmudgeon Day in the US. As far as I know, Canada has no such day.
A long-dead, grumpy hunter was the first to earn the title. In 1498, while out hunting with English King Henry V11, his dark mood caused another hunter to accuse him of having a "coeur manchon," or a "heart covered in tubes or metal circles." The observer, linguists feel, most likely meant that the grumpy marksman had a "closed-up heart."
King Henry liked the expression so well he began using it whenever anyone near him seemed irritable. Others, copying the king, began using the phrase too. After years of public mangling, the word became established as we know it today. Curmudgeon: grumpy old person.
Few people appreciate grumps, even the Preacher. While sitting in a pew and waiting for church to begin one Sunday, he suddenly turned to me. "She looks grumpy this morning," he whispered.
I wondered which of our fellow parishioners he meant. "Who looks grumpy?"
He held out a bill he'd been preparing to stuff inside an offering envelope. "The queen. Look. Doesn't she look grumpy to you?"
I inspected the green monarch-stamped paper. Crown in place. Cheeks still rounded nicely. Intelligent eyes. A sober monarch, yes. A curmudgeon, no.
"She looks the same as usual to me. Does it bother you that she looks grumpy?"
"Yes. Yes, it does."
"Why?"
"I don't know why. It just does." The Preacher kept staring at his bill. When I started tittering he stuffed the grumpy queen into the envelope - so fast that I pitied Her Royal Grumpiness.
Later we mentioned the incident to a friend. He took a five dollar bill from his pocket and creased it in several places. Tilting the bill one way gave the queen a silly smirk - tilting it the other gave her a genuinely fowl scowl - one worthy of a true curmudgeon.
"See? Your grumpy queen was likely just creased wrong," I told the Preacher. "It had nothing to do with you!"
Like the queen on that bill, some people simply have curmudgeon faces, but not curmudgeon hearts. For years I observed a woman from afar. Her pretty face looked as though it had been set on ice - for a very long time. Definitely curmudgeon material, I thought.
When she and I became friends, I learned that an illness caused her frozen expression. I'd been completely wrong about her, I realized with shame. She had a funny, warm and thoughtful personality.
Fewer people I know have more open hearts.
God knows there are true closed hearts among us - whether or not their faces show it. But no closed-up heart is beyond softening by the Holy Spirit, and he often he uses Christ-followers as his tools.
Ask him to love a curmudgeon through you today. And Happy Curmudgeon day!
