Ewww Factor

Last evening I sat with my grandson and granddaughter, after our meal, and looked through a treasure drawer that I keep. It is filled with pocket knives, large and small, that have come my way over these years. It is a place where you can produce a wow factor in your grandkid’s life. My dad and my grandpa had special collections like this as well. I don’t doubt that it is a man thing to have a treasure drawer.

One of my small treasures is made of bone. I bought it on the street in Hong Kong from a hawker who was sitting on the side of the side walk. It has a special purpose and I am sure that the creator had great dreams of making it big by producing this thing. It really doesn’t even have a name.

As you can see in the photo is the shape of a pocket knife. It was actually lying beside other knives that were for sale.

Inside of the special apparatus are two tools. One tool is for picking your teeth – imagine a finely carved bone tooth pick. Never again would its owner need to reach for the tooth pick container…or not have a tooth pick.

The second tool is far more ingenious. It is a tiny spoon shape on the end of another finely carved piece of bone. It is special – are you ready for this? It is an ear cleaner. A tiny spoon shape is carved to insert in your ear canal and dig out the ear wax that is built up. After you complete the task at hand you simply fold the small spoon back inside the carved handle along with the tooth pick.

As I explained this simple apparatus to my grandson Clifford, who is 12 years old, the look on his face told me loud and clear that he caught the Ewww factor big time. (The photo is not Clifford but borrowed from Time’s article referenced below.)

The Time article in the June 4, 2007 edition refers to the Ewww Factor that we all experience and the power of this factor. The article points to two researchers by the name of Morales and Fitzsimons that influenced Paul Rozin, another researcher. They work in psychology and in this particular case the study of “touch transference”.

Quote: “If something repulsive touches something benign, the later, even it its physically unchanged, becomes infected.” (Michael Lemonick –Time June 4, 2007)

In my illustration with my grandson’s reaction – the idea of a tooth pick sitting side by side in a small holder with an ear wax cleaner was repulsive and produced a strong Ewww Factor – much the way that you had when you read the description. Everyone has this when they see this small Chinese invention.

Another small invention that the man sold beside the sidewalk in Hong Kong was a tongue scrapper. It was fashioned of a flexible material something the colour of cow horn. And in one case it was cow horn. It was flat and smooth and long enough to let you grasp both ends – make it into a small bow – then in this “U shape” you could scrape your tongue clean. When and if you were bothered by that ugly white coating on your tongue in the morning you simply were able to scrape off the bad stuff. This small invention was made by the carver with a hole in one end so it could be carried on your key chain and kept in your pocket – along with your money.

That description likely didn’t hit you until you placed the tongue scraper beside the collection of well used coins in the same pocket.

What is the big deal? In Canada I have watched people withdraw the extra tooth pick they carry along with their keys or coins in the same lint littered pocket. By blowing away the lint they are able to simply pick their teeth – right there and right then. It is their own lint… but will only really disgust you when they offer their best tooth pick to you.

Was that another Ewww Factor I just heard? If it wasn’t enough yet – we shake hands with people that have just picked their nose with the fingers on that same hand. Double Ewww Factor – I bet.

This powerful reaction in us has been noticed by marketing people. The supermarket that we shop in keeps the toilet paper away from the fresh vegetables. The cat litter is never sitting close to where the baby food is sold. The cleaning supplies such as ammonia, is never placed on the same shelf as the pop. All of these are separated by great distances in the store. Because – even if they are in their same packages and completely sealed – the thought of them being near each other is so powerful – that we are turned off.

Why talk about this?
“Touch transference” is a simple and powerful way to illustrate what we are forced to do with the thinking patterns within us. We actually cannot stop the Ewww Factor when we experience these thoughts.

It doesn’t stop with tooth picks, cockroaches and orange juice or kitty litter. It happens in many other areas as well.

Take church for instance – some people have a difficult time shaking hands when they think of where other people’s hands have been. We provide a pump of hand cleaner outside the main sanctuary doors to help all of us embraced a “universal precaution” with health issues and psychological issues. It also places a thin film of cleanser over the “touch transference” making this simple act of Christian expression possible in 2007.

Comedy because of “Touch Transference”
This strong thought pattern spills over to our other thought life as well.

Last week in church I was leading the part of our service where our folk present their financial gifts – the offering. I was in a “light spirit” mode. I did it again – I blew it with some of the dear folk sitting there listening intently for one or more of my gaffs. (I think they are gaff police actually) I knew as soon as the words slipped out of my mouth – that I would be talked about over lunch time in a restaurant somewhere.

I said – are you ready for this? – “Who knows some of you may win a lottery and then pay our church debt off someday. After all I find your used or discarded lottery tickets in the pews all the time and I know you buy them….” These two simple sentences were enough to hear a woman’s neck actually crack as she quickly turned her head to the one next to her and asked, “Did you hear that?” I didn’t see it but people sitting close to her did – and came to tell me about why they thought her reaction was so “weird”. Lighten up lady some would like to say. BUT she cannot help herself – she was touched deeply inside and was offended.

So what is wrong with someone saying that in church? Well it is the “touch transference” of another kind. The PASTOR just doesn’t say that kind of thing in church! Using the words “lottery” in and from the pulpit when you are taking the offering – and it’s the PASTOR saying the words – there is opportunity for a Ewww Factor in the area of sensitivities and decorum.

I had a similar reaction when one day in my words from the pulpit I used the word “condom”. The setting is impossible to describe here – other than the fact that people had been grossed out with the idea of the number of condoms left in our church parking lot from after hour activity. Some even reading this ‘church blog’ will have already given me the Ewww Factor and heads have shaken again. (Two people walked from church that day.) Ooops – I almost inserted a photo of a condom here… but that would be too much – right?

In church – touch transference – is powerful – it comes out in feigned holiness.

Jesus found this same attitude when he walked the earth too.

Matt 12:1-8 (The Living Bible)
About that time, Jesus was walking one day through some grainfields with his disciples. It was on the Sabbath, the Jewish day of worship, and his disciples were hungry; so they began breaking off heads of wheat and eating the grain.
But some Pharisees saw them do it and protested, "Your disciples are breaking the law. They are harvesting on the Sabbath."
But Jesus said to them, "Haven't you ever read what King David did when he and his friends were hungry?
He went into the Temple and they ate the special bread permitted to the priests alone. That was breaking the law too.
And haven't you ever read in the law of Moses how the priests on duty in the Temple may work on the Sabbath?
And truly, one is here who is greater than the Temple!
But if you had known the meaning of this Scripture verse, 'I want you to be merciful more than I want your offerings,' you would not have condemned those who aren't guilty!
For I, the Messiah, am master even of the Sabbath."

This quote alone will offend some deeply – in that it is taken from “The Living Bible”. Two people left our church because we don’t always use the King James Bible – which is the way that Jesus talked and what Jesus used when he was alive. Yah Right!
If you think for one minute that “touch transference” doesn’t touch you – think again.

Just remember one thing – God is the one that has the greatest Ewww Factor when he looks at you and me… we just do something really odd things – yet he still loves us.

That is a “Wow Factor” which counters the “Ewww Factor”.

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
Reference http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1625167,00.html