Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Bruce and the Spider – Salone Style


The other day while sitting waiting to see the Director of Financial Resources the story of Bruce and the Spider came to my mind.  I was sitting in his secretaries’ office (he has two!) waiting and as I stared into space a movement on the floor caught my eye.  A coke bottle was under a desk and something inside it was moving.  I took a closer look to discover it was the new home for a cockroach.  According to Mah it had been in there for the last week but this still didn’t stop it from trying to climb out – very unsuccessfully.

OK so not exactly the same outcome as Bruce and the Spider but it did make me think of that story and how it relates to my time here.   If you are not Scottish perhaps you do not know what I am going on about so here is a potted version:

King Robert the Bruce was born at Lochmaben Castle in 1274. He was Knight and Overlord of Annandale. In 1306 he was crowned King of Scotland and from that time tried to free Scotland from the English enemy. After being defeated at a battle, Bruce escaped and found a hideout in a cave. Hiding in a cave for three months, Bruce was at the lowest point of his life. He thought about leaving the country and never coming back. While waiting, he watched a spider building a web in the cave's entrance. The spider fell down time after time, but finally he succeeded with his web. So Bruce decided also to retry his fight and told his men: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again".

So there you are.   Here I have often been disheartened and have felt like giving up but like Robert the Bruce I have pulled myself together and waded into battle again and again and I slowly may be winning.

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