"Peoples minds are like deep wells full of sweet water."
This quote comes from The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King.
Stephen King has always been one of my favorite contemporary authors, if not at times my favorite. Up until now, I could never really tell you why. I just liked his stories.
After re-reading this novel, I now know why: I like his stories. I like the way he tells his stories. I like his characters and how he weaves them so intricately together.
But, most importantly, I like the messages he delivers.
Sure, he has become somewhat macabre and dark as time has marched on. As a writer, I can tell you that some of that comes from inside where part of him feels macabre and dark. Way down deep....
Like the bottom of a well....his well.
I read The Eyes of the Dragon many years ago. In fact, it was probably the book that initially turned me on to Stephen King. My father had suggested it to me. When I read it (way back when) I was young and inexperienced. I read the words at surface level because I had little experience to give them the life and depth with which Mr. King had probably written them. Again, just a good, engaging story.
Re-reading it as an adult has been enlightening and a completely different experience. Chapter by chapter I found snippets of phrases and words that seemed to speak to me on my level and where I am at now.
The previous quote is one of many that hit me hard. Poignant, transformational, yet subtle references to many issues with which I deal now.
We all have a well. And I believe the Divine intent of that well, of its very contents, is sweet and precious.
But "sometimes, when a particular thought is too unpleasant to bear, the person who has the thought will lock it into a box and throw it into that well. He listens for a splash...and then the box is gone. Except it is not, of course, because even the deepest well has a bottom."
The presence of the box in the depths contaminates the water of the well. In any body of water, the things that litter the water sink to the bottom where they can no longer be seen. But those items are still there. If they are not removed, they decay and rot.
"The caskets those evil, frightening ideas are buried in may rot, and the nastiness inside may leak out after awhile and poison the water."
You have all seen what things look like when they have been in the water for too long. From skin, to tires, to cans, to bottles, to medical waste...everything decays. And decay means poison of some sort. If the body of water is large enough, it might be able to sustain itself and its life flow even with the poison floating through it. Even more so if the water is flowing and moving, receiving new water and sending out old.
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| "The nastiness inside may leak out after awhile and poison the water." |
As it can be with the well of the mind, of the soul. Sometimes it seems easier to just not deal with the thoughts and issues that are too painful. Easier and less painful to put them in a casket and shove it down. Forget about it as it disappears into the depths and is covered over by the day-to-day chaos of life.
Just as the poison of the decaying casket seeps into the water and pollutes it, sometimes irreversibly, the poison of unattended pain and confusion seeps into the mind and the soul and comes out in many destructive ways. Destructive not only to the individual, but to the people and situations that the individual finds herself in. Feeding upon itself, multiplying, intensifying.
Mr. King took this concept one step further with "When the well of the mind is badly poisoned, we call the result insanity." Yes, that is the end game....the final play after the poison wreaks havoc with everything we once held dear.
In other words, which would you rather be? The dead pond with the floating, bloated fish and other decay from which you want to turn away....or the clean, inviting clear water in which you can see the ripples and in which you want to swim.
Everything is a choice.
I could never understand why my father would read books more than once. Just like I could never understand why he underlined, highlighted, and otherwise took notes in the margin of every book he touched. Even his bible was annotated.
I now understand. Clearly.
What does this all mean? If you have gotten to the end of this post and not fallen asleep yet, I don't need to explain, or at least I hope my message is clear:
- Don't play around with painful thoughts. Deal with them head on. Otherwise, they turn into rotten things that make life miserable. Playing with rotten, poisonous things is not fun and can be even more painful and destructive, not to mention icky.
- Read books more than once, if you have the chance. But do it over time so that the framework that is established in your mind through your experiences is structurally sound enough to eke out every bit of meaning from the words you read.
- Apply what you read if it strikes a chord.
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