Towel

He arrived with intent, holding his towel ready to do that which he saw as his calling. He is a brow mopper, he is there to clean up perspiration on the brow and anywhere else. He is a comforter, the one that provides comfort in time of pain and trouble. He is a succour provider for the oppressed, he is the strengthener of the weak and feeble. But today I am not weak or feeble neither am I perspiring but he insisted on mopping up my non existent perspiration. He patted me and checked his towel, but there was no sweat, so he patted harder and harder, then he proceeded to rub and scrub until I began to bleed, now he had something to clean he felt needed and fulfilled. My blood on his towel was the mark of accomplishment! He is a nurse, but when does the caring instinct mutate to a smothering, suffocating, suppressing and controlling drive?

He was the shoulder to cry on, except today I was not in a place of tears, however his shirt needed to be wet and stained, so he placed onions before my eyes and made sure that tears ran down my face. She was the great hostess that prepares the most sumptuous meal, except I was not hungry today, however she forced her painstakingly prepared food down my throat (otherwise I was an ingrate), so I ate and ate until I was sick and bursted, but she didn’t care as long as I ate, she is one that feeds the hungry and destitute but she could not discern that today I was not one of her clients. He is the counsellor that counsels the confused and anxious and today he insists that I bear out my soul and share my fear, except that today I had no fear, yet he will not let me go, so I had to feign fear and I became terrified.

Well meaning people carry towel around, for in this service they find their sense of worth and purpose, nothing wrong with that, loads of people require the service of a towel carrier, some require a misery buddy others a tragedy companion, swapping stories of misfortunes and trying to outdo each other in the telling of it. ‘You ought to be sad’ they tell you and woe betide you if you try to explain that you are not. It is like a Mum that spends all morning (and afternoon) baking for her kids and when they arrive from school, whilst appreciative they are not hungry, someone is now angry, feeling irrelevant snd unappreciated. The ego of the towel carrier is huge though cunningly disguised in altruistic demeanour, they do not take lightly to the shunning of their supposedly kind gestures. I have been there, atimes I have been the towel carrier.

No you do not need to perspire, cry, be miserable, depressed or whatever if that is not where you are, however you ought to be circumspect, do not enter a barber shop unless you need a hair cut, do not enter a restaurant unless you are hungry, do not go to an encourager unless you require encouragement. Hospitals are a place to get healed, walk into one and you will be treated as an invalid, some people are hospitals and unless you are unwell, stay away from them, otherwise they will make you sick by the time you leave them. Know who you are and where you are in life and enter the right shop. Sometimes we stray into the wrong store, let us leave as soon as we realise there is nothing we require. There is nothing wrong in being a towel carrier, and as I mentioned earlier, loads of people require this service but today we are not one of those people. Today we are in the school of the strong.

Relish, savour the days of strength. Do not consider it humility or good manner to stoop before the weak and towel carrier. I leave you with the quote from Khalil Gibran who said ‘you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness’.