What is Caulking?

“What are you doing my grandson asked?” “I am caulking,” I replied.

“You are what?” “I am caulking.”

“But you are at your desk working on your computer, I thought caulking was done in bathroom showers in the cracks, or seams, between the tiles.” “I did too until yesterday.”

“What happened yesterday?” My grandson asked. “I watched Ken, our handyman apply caulk to the seams between the shower tiles.” “Now I am confused,” said my grandson.

Let me explain this way. The tiles in our bathroom shower have seams. Over time, the caulk in the seams decays. The seams must be repaired or water will seep through the seams, through the floor and destroy the ceiling beneath the bathroom. A few pennies worth of caulk in the seams can save thousands of dollars of water damage to a ceiling. People who have repaired damaged ceilings know the value of good caulk.

Ken was here yesterday to caulk the cracks, the seams, between the tiles. Ken carefully laid out his caulk, several caulking tools, some caulk remover and several rags. He surveyed the seams that needed caulking. He made sure that the new caulk color matched the old caulk color in the tile. As I watched Ken remove some of the old caulk, carefully add new caulk, spread it out, smooth it over and then remove the excess caulk to make the seams look perfect; it occurred to me how similar caulking the seams in tiles was to caulking the seams in relationships.

Life has a lot of seams. Old relationships can dry out. New caulk must be added to keep the relationships operating together. Otherwise it is every tile for themselves. Water seeps between the tiles causing damage. It is not the water’s or tile’s fault. We are the complicit ones in these leaking relationships because we know we failed to regularly caulk the seams. We assumed the original caulk would last forever. It does not.

Hence, as I said to my grandson, “I am at my computer sending a few emails and letters to people that I love and need to stay connected to — in other words, I am caulking a few seams.”