30. Witch
What
do you do when you can't work? Do you keep trying,
scribbling down any old rubbish? Do you look for something to blame?
This desk isn't right! I hate this chair! This room is too cold (or hot)! This house is so noisy (too quiet!) I never wanted to write this book, I wish I was working on that other (newer) idea (which hasn't yet been tested by being committed to paper) …
When King Saul of Israel felt himself deserted by God – his muse, in a way. He asked the clairvoyant Witch of Endor to predict the outcome of a forthcoming battle with the Philistines. The Witch of Endor passed the buck and called up the spirit of the prophet Samuel, the last judge of the Israelites, who had anointed Saul king.
Samuel foretold that neither Saul nor his three sons would survive the
battle. The prediction was accurate. Once his three sons had been slain,
Saul killed himself.
The irony – or the bitter moral – of the story is that, some time previously, Saul had banned the summoning of the spirits of the dead. As one commentator dryly puts it:
'The Israelites showed a tendency to relapse into heathen practices in times of adversity.'
My advice is – don't relapse, stay positive, stay focused on the
future, on where you are going, not where you've
been.
