Shameless Preaching

         A few days ago a story was told to me, boldly and without shame, of an event in the past concerning a little girl, whom we shall call Jane. When Jane was very young, she studied in a school, like most young girls. One day, in the middle of a class, Jane felt the call of nature and asked her teacher, tearfully, if she could leave the room and attend to it.

     To this the teacher responded by telling her to wait, saying that the period was almost over, and Jane returned to her seat. When the bell rang and the students stood up to leave, Jane found herself standing up in the middle of the classroom, peeing copiously. Every eye fixed on her, and although the spirit commanded it to with every ounce of will it possessed, the body would not stop peeing. Jane had to wear her dirtied socks and shoes for the rest of the day although, mercifully, she was given a change of clothes.

    And this self-same Jane, many years later, was able to narrate the story of this incident, an incident that had covered her with shame and self-loathing in the past, with tears running down her face- tears of laughter. And the lesson I learnt from this is that even things that can seem like the end of the world at the time eventually get better. Only tactless people with no imagination comfort mourners by saying "you'll look back at this and laugh", but, really, it's true.

     So if there is something in your past that makes you cringe just remembering, bear in mind that it will eventually get better. The passage of years will let you look back on the incident with forgiveness and even, hopefully, amusement, at some point.