… I don’t like drugs! Yes, I don’t and I will avoid them if I can. I prefer to use faith, say positive things to myself, have a good mental attitude, even endure the pain and hopefully my ailment disappears, but sometimes it simply just does not work like that, the ailment does not disappear, my pain gets worse, not sure if my faith is not strong enough, my confession not long enough, my mental attitude not robust enough, I don’t know, all I know is that I need relief and I need it fast, I can’t even think straight to string a logical statement together, confession is a muddle. A grown woman like me is wailing in the middle of the night, and I wouldn’t consider my pain tolerance that low, it is just that I feel it, the pain has permeated my whole body.
Then the doctor arrives, armed with this tiny, innocuous, unassuming, underwhelming, non impressive looking pill. I was not convinced, but at this stage I will do and try anything. So I took this tiny blue pill, swallowed the pill with some water. In no time, I lie not, my whole body calmed down, my pain vanished, I can’t tell you if it was a temporary or permanent relief, but I was good for now and that is all that mattered . I felt like a very different person. Is this for real? Or is it some form of placebo? Mind over matter? Great is the wonder of nature and kudos to the pharmaceutical and medical profession for being able to harness and present it in a form that relieves pain!
I couldn’t help thinking, that in someway people are very similar, some are like the tiny blue pill. They arrive in our life, or put differently our paths cross, and on initial contact, there is nothing impressive about them, on the outside there is probably not much to them, their speech is wobbly and sometimes we make the mistake and we discount them, we dismiss them, we see and find no use for them, without even giving them a chance, and why should we? For starters, they are ‘tiny’ and ‘blue’ and sometimes even ‘ugly’. And then out of boredom, or loneliness, or politeness or political correctness or whatever, we give the ‘tiny, blue’ person a chance, we engage, we listen, we pay attention and we are pleasantly surprised how much punch they pack! They are good for us, they relieve our pain, calm our nerves, bring sunshine into our lives, stabilise us! Great is the wonder of nature in its dealings!
In the same vein, we sometimes encounter some other people, they are like the big fat pill, oblong. Try as hard as you can, you can never get it down, forever stuck in the throat. Gallon of water wouldn’t get it down! Spilling it out, is an effort as well. More palava than it is worth. The only way to get it down, is to break it, or crush it and dilute it with something sweet. And after all of that drama, it is not even that effective, your pain is unabated! It comes in great eye catching package, promising heaven and earth but falling flat on delivery. Size and packaging has been of no relevance. And that is just how some people are. They are forever stuck in our throat, all they do is cause more pain, getting rid of them is arduous. We can only encounter them in really small doses and to do that we have to crush or break them to be digestible, yet the impact is minimum.
Never discount the tiny blue pill, give people a chance!
Beautiful Ivory 