THE CHEESE STANDS ALONE

When Charlie Radcliffe was a boy, he often played the old game of “Farmer in the Dell.” Always he remembered more than anything else that the ending was, “……the cheese stands alone.” That portion of verse stuck in Charlie’s mind, and through out many circumstances it would surface and almost speak to him. He could never really fit too well with people, and he didn’t know why, but even when he was a kid, he would always get mad. Not just mad, but super angry at the other kids, and often he would end up alone with no one to talk to, and the verse would pop up in his head, “the cheese stands alone.”

As Charlie grew older he had trouble with social interaction. He just could not get along well with others, for the cause that Charlie always had to be right! Now Charlie never knew his father because he had walked out on his mother when Charlie was a baby. His mother, who had never even heard from Charlie’s Daddy again. Apparently Charlie’s Daddy had a hard time like Charlie getting along with people, and he would walk out on jobs. He likewise walked out on his wife. He would just turn his back and have things his way or not at all. So Charlie’s mother was not too surprised when she saw the father in the son, because she had lived in dread during the time that Charlie’s father was around, and she knew how that felt. You might say she understood the vibrations.

Charlie, although he was viciously bound by pride, was ambitious, and always desiring to accomplish and to complete that which he started. His mother was proud of his academic achievement but ashamed of his social non-interaction. But, she told herself that didn’t matter because in the long run, Charlie could be an engineer or a computer genius and he wouldn’t have to get along with people.

Charlie’s mother worked hard, and she saved as much money as she could because she wanted to put Charlie into college. So through her frugality and diligence she was able to send him away to school and she had even taken another job to support him. So, he went away to school, determined to make something of himself and make her proud. Now Charlie loved his mother, and it seemed she was the only person on earth who understood him and he wanted to her proud. He worked hard at school and locked himself into academics and forgot all about social interaction. When he did this he excelled and he was able to give his mother a good report, and he graduated with honors. About this time, his mother’s health failed from the overwork, and she was glad that Charlie had moved back home. He had secured a job working with a local engineering firm and his mother was proud of him.

One day, Charlie’s mother had to tell him his news. The doctor had told her that she had cancer and would not live one year. Of course she did not want to hurt her son, but then again, she had to face death on her own. She prayed most diligently at this point in her life even though she had neglected spiritual matters for years in her struggle to support Charlie and raise him up. She found her peace with God and she tried to talk to Charlie about God too, but Charlie, still bound by his pride, told her he didn’t need God; that he could “stand alone.” Charlie’s mother died, eight months after she found out about the cancer, and her son was left alone. But then again, he just had to make it because he knew he could stand alone.

Several months after his mother was dead Charlie decided to go to a coffee shop for dinner because he was lonely, even though he couldn’t admit that to himself. He met a woman there who he thought was beautiful; she was a waitress who was working to put herself through nursing school. Charlie was very socially inadequate and he could not find a way to ask her for a date, so he just decided to go back to the coffee shop again and may be he could talk to her. When Charlie went the next time she wasn’t there, so he asked one of the other girls when she worked so he could come back. When he went back she was there and she smiled at him, and Charlie took that personally, and then he asked her if she ever had a day off that he could see her. Of course she did and they started seeing each other.

Now Charlie was careful not to let her see him in his rage, and he was always most polite and kind to her, treating her with utmost respect. After several months, he asked her to marry him and she consented; they set the wedding for July 1st, after her graduation from nursing school. Her name was Army. Now Amy was his mother, easy going and gentle-natured, not exactly the type to kindle his anger. But then again, Charlie was so proud that it didn’t take much to kindle him at all!

Charlie and Amy had a small private wedding (since Charlie didn’t have any friends and Amy was from out of town). For their honeymoon he said they would take the train to a small mountain community he knew where ha had already made them reservations at a quaint little inn. It would be good to get to the mountains and it would b cool there for a few days. So, off they went and Amy got to see another side to the man she had married. The first night they stayed at the inn, he got angry because the water was not hot enough in the shower. He was ready to leave in the middle of the of the night, but Amy begged him to calm down, because the train only ran every three days and would not be back for two more days. How could they get out of the town? Charlie was in a fit of rage, and she spent two hours calming him down. She did not know that this side of Charlie existed, but they were married now, so she would have to become thoroughly acquainted with him.

The next day, Amy was still shaken by the incident of the night before, but Charlie seemed fine. They walked through the town and enjoyed, the little shops, then they went bade to their room. Amy was terrified that Charlie would explode again, but instead he just went to sleep without taking a shower, and she was giving thanks to God. Amy was not used to such a temper, and she told herself that Charlie was just under stress from the wedding and the trip and the new marriage. Little did she know that the Charlie she had seen on her wedding night would become more evident to her than she would ever have imagined.
After they returned and settled down to married life, Charlie found out that Amy could not cook at alt, let alone tike his mother. He had assumed she could cook because she worked at the coffee shop. So, many times when she would try to please him in the mornings, he would leave the house in a rage because she just couldn't give Charlie what he wanted the way he wanted it! Many times Amy would cry out of despair, not knowing what to do. She had planned on working but she found she was pregnant and sick so much that she was unable to take the stress of her profession plus deal with Charlie. She often wondered what had; happened to the man she had married who had been so kind, so gentle, so understanding. Months passed and Amy was sick the whole time, waiting for the baby, But she told herself when Charlie became a father he would change. When she had the baby, and he came to see her at the hospital, he seemed discouraged, so she asked him what was wrong. He told her that he had wanted a girl, not a son; now they had a son. When she tried to console him, he just turned and yelled at her, "Do you want him to be like me?" And then he left the hospital room; she was stunned and she waited till all the lights were out, hoping and praying he would come back, but he didn't So, she cried herself to sleep, wondering why Charlie didn't love their beautiful baby boy,
In the months following the baby's birth, things did not get better, they only got worse. Charlie started and ended every day in contention and Amy was a case of nerves. She could not sleep and she lost lots of weight; the baby sensed the contention and cried a lot. Amy's life was hell on earth. But her mother had taught her that if you make a choice you stick
With it, so she stuck it out day by day. Charlie's pride was wild because he had received a pro-motion at work and he thought he would soon be the boss. Of course Charlie would never be the boss, but his pride told him he would. More than one time Amy was told the story of how that Charlie's daddy had just walked out on his mother, and then he would walk out of the house after he told the story so that it would have the ultimate effect on her. Amy was so nervous that she could not rest at all, even while he was gone to work, because once he had come home and she had been sleeping in the middle of the day and he, had carried on in a lecture for an hour about her laziness. So, she knew that if she fell asleep and he found her she would not hear the end of it.
Finally, Amy reached her breaking point because Charlie said he wanted to give the baby up for adoption because he hated boys. When he was gone to work, she called her mother who wired her the money to come home on. She packed up with the baby and left. That night when Charlie came home, he was all prepared to yell at her and scream about getting rid of the baby, because Charlie didn't like the boy baby. But she wasn't there, and all he found was a note that said, "Forgive me, darling, I have left with the baby. Amy."
He read it over and over, it wasn’t supposed to end this way; he was supposed to walk out on her that is what mother said happened. Why had she done this? She had spoiled everything. And she had taken the baby that he wanted to torment her with. Things felt like they were collapsing around Charlie, but then he heard it again, so he sang to himself, over and over, “The cheese stands alone, the cheese stands alone, hi-ho the dairy-o, the cheese stands alone.”
CONSIDER
An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.
Proverbs 29:22-23
Husbands love your wives, ev