TRUST

If you reflect on my history, as I have shared it here, you may be able to see why I had little trust in adults, which was confirmed by my dear head teacher at secondary school, who said, in front of the whole school on my last day (I don’t want to write this; it still makes me shudder!) “King, you are a waste of space!” And he added, rather vindictively in a deep baritone Welsh accent (nothing against him being Welsh), “You will make nothing of yourself.” That humiliation in front of the whole school made me so angry. I thought very slowly, I will show you, mate! I had come into school labeled as a “dunce”; now I was leaving labeled as a “waste of space.” (“Perhaps, Roger, that challenge inspired you towards the wonderful being you became.”—Chelle) Thank you, my dear friend Chelle!

I could not get out of school quick enough. I left with one O level in technical drawing and a whole lot of raw emotional hatred stored inside me. This reminds me of another little story:

The Mouse and the Bull

A mouse bit a bull on the nose, and the bull, enraged by such impudence, chased after it. The tiny mouse disappeared into a hole in a wall, so the bull charged against the wall bashing it again and again with his horns until he was quite worn out. He sank to the ground for a rest, whereupon the cheeky mouse came out and bit him again! The bull got to his feet, determined to catch his tormentor this time, but the mouse disappeared once more into the hole, leaving the bull with nothing to do but snort and bellow in hopeless anger. Soon he heard a little voice from inside the wall: “You big brutes don’t always get your own way; sometimes we little ones get the better of you.”

This shadows the story of David and Goliath, and the story Cinderella, as well as other fairy stories that tell of those who are small of stature overcoming the giants. So often I listen to true stories of abuse, and yet what is so amazing is that the pain can be alchemized into wise healing with real love and forgiveness.