麻豆社

Ruth Scott Anglican Priest and Quaker:

听

This morning I want to talk taps. When I was a child they were very simple. You twisted them one way to tum them on, and back the other way to tum them off. Nowadays I spend twice as long in public rest rooms and hotel bathrooms trying to work out how to get water from a tap-fitting that gives no indication of how it works. Some have handles to be turned left or right, and possibly up or down at the same time. Others must be lent on hard, or tapped lightly. Some must be waved at in a certain place where a sensor is concealed either on the tap or on the wall behind it. And how many times have I stood stupidly waving, pushing, twisting, or rubbing my hands hopefully together under the said torture device wondering how on earth to make it work, only to discover this particular one doesn't!

What was once second nature is now unfamiliar and, frankly, frustrating. Rest rooms have become wrestling rooms, where I tend towards bad-temper and a longing for what no longer is. Of course high tech taps are a trivial inconvenience, but there are many more important times in our lives when known people, places and experiences are replaced by what is unfamiliar and, at first, confusing. Moving home, relationship breakdown, bereavement or leaving school for the last time are just a few examples. Even when developments are positive they can still be challenging.

Stuck in a barren wilderness of uncertainty and challenge, the liberated Hebrew people in the biblical Exodus story long to be back in slavery in Egypt. At least there they knew the state of play. One of the important lessons I've learnt when feeling my way through unfamiliar and, perhaps, unwelcome times of transition is that they can always be transformed into something positive if I choose to make that happen. This requires me to be resilient and to accept responsibility for making things work, rather than waiting for others to sort it all out for me. I may need support sometimes, but there's never any shame in asking for help... even if it is only to work out how to tum on a tap!