storey stories

Hi there,

let me know what you thought of Izzard the Lizard.

Here is a piece I wrote a few years ago:

CHINESE WATER TORTURE

I used to think that the mean words people said were like drops of water landing on a stone. One drop is not much in itself, but over time can wear the stone like many centuries of sandals stepping on it. In the ancient water torture, the victim learns to dread the next drop. Each drop comes at the exact time, each time. Relentless. In an otherwise quiet room, the sound is deafening, and the wait – torturous.

Recently, I was thinking as I drove along the water’s edge near home, if I can’t change other people, I can change the way I think about the situation. I don’t have to picture myself as a rock. I’m not that hard anyway. Why don’t I think of myself as a bowl of water? A drop will then fall into it and cause ripples to spread outward. There is no ‘wearing away’ and it is only a drop.

Driving a little further along the road I thought, why not a lake? An ocean? Yes an ocean. A drop in the ocean. Even if it was a drop of dye, it would make no difference to the ocean really. Even a freshwater drop would not make the sea less salty.

Then I thought of those words in the bible that exhort us to be like the salt that flavours the meal. Maybe it is a spiritual battle after all.

I will thing of an ocean with the waves rolling in and I will relax …

Jacki Walker