The Nettle
written by Pennylee
Generally speaking, I had a pleasant family, and their attitude towards me and things like the stinging nettle was hard to take. With hindsight, I believe they were trying to stop me from developing into a whiny, blubbering character; at the time, I wanted a lot more sympathy.
My mother, a very kind person, was apt to treat a grazed knee with brisk competency. She washed it, dried it, applied whatever remedy was in vogue and added an appropriate dressing, or not, as the situation demanded. She would give me a brief cuddle and then send me on my way with an encouraging remark. Of course, it was the right thing to do, to stop nervous drama building up, and I recognize that now. With the stinging nettle, it was a little different. The torture that I was enduring when I was stung could not be imagined. It throbbed. It distracted from any other happening. Who could properly understand this pain? How could we continue on our way through the countryside when I was suffering like this? Why did they keep telling me not to make such a fuss?
Now I could understand the heroes of the adventure books I used to read- the ones who gritted their teeth and endured the scorn of those around them. Sometimes another member of the family was stung, too, and I did not smile in satisfaction. I was too busy with the task of feeling very sorry for me, just me, as we walked through the tangled grass that is sadly, probably now replaced by bricks and mortar.
There were always dock leaves growing near stinging nettles (in Scotland called “docken”.) They were supposed to be an antidote to the nasty nettle if they were rubbed over the affected part. They didn’t help very quickly or very much, but I suppose the rubbing action removed the stingers (I must look that up some day). I think the most important duty they had was to raise hope (and of course the time spent in looking for them took one’s mind off the discomfort.) Yes, of course it was discomfort, not pain; no, it didn’t happen on every single excursion with the family; and yes I would be rather ashamed nowadays to do more than spit out a few banned words in the nettles’ general direction.
******** Pennylee
|
