From the “Pits” to the Pendulum

Dear Reader:

I still remember the sheer terror I felt as a youth going to see Vincent Price’s movie version of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum. The whole neighborhood gang went and I didn’t want to be teased so I stayed to the end but paid for it with nightmares for a week.

Since I am under the zodiac sign of the scales… I am a Libra and always feel more comfortable in my skin when my physical, emotional, and spiritual life is in sync and balanced.

Yet, even withstanding a morbid terrifying interpretation of a pendulum, a.k.a. Poe…my grandmother gave me another idea about pendulums that have remained to this day.

Basically she explained that everyone was going to go through good times and extremely challenging ones but the lower the pendulum on one side… the higher it goes on the other.

Life itself does like to stay in sync with a balance so whenever I was going through a tragedy or extremely difficult time in my life… I just envisioned how high the pendulum would soon rise with happiness at the tip top flowing down on me.

To date… it has always worked…IF we have the patience to see the pattern through.

Understanding the pendulum helps me have patience with myself remembering that that all my misses are slowly getting me closer to my goal. Like Goldilocks trying out the porridge and furniture, I must keep trying things out until I discover my happiness zone… where I fit in life.

So until tomorrow… no one can stay happy forever …no matter how much we want the pendulum to stay frozen at the top… life IS change because God, in His infinite wisdom, designed it that way!

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

And change was worth waiting on Saturday to be with my grandchildren, dogs and family again! Here are a few snapshots!

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”

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