I felt that I had to try and test this idea. I mean, I knew it had to be true in that you will undoubtedly touch the life of anyone who meets you as a baby, but could you live in a way that could be called “simply existing” and touch no one’s lives at all?
I stopped work for a few months to try. Certainly I couldn’t help but interact a little. I kept it to a minimum, though, by ordering essentials online and saying as little as possible to the delivery men.
I had no telephone, no other internet interactions. Others touched my life, through reading and watching TV, but I sought to touch no one else’s.
Three months was my aim.
I think I made it a week, though it was years before I found out. I thought I had succeeded for so long. But...
I was quite the night owl, then, working, via the net, from home to meet deadlines for my editor. So much so that it destroyed my sleep pattern and, when I didn’t have deadlines to meet, I would stay up all night watching films or box sets. For the experiment I thought this situation would be perfect- simply existing through the night couldn’t touch any lives, surely?
Ten years after my experiment I answered my door to a teenager selling biscuits for charity. I bought a few packets and throughout the transaction, the kid had this look on his face like he had something to say. I thought little of it until, as he began to turn away, he stopped and turned back to me.
“You now, I never thanked you,” he started. To my bemused look he replied, “When I was a child, I used to get ever so scared of the dark. Sometimes I would be up all night scared of one thing or another. Just lying there, so, so afraid.
“I remember one time, just after my fifth birthday- so about ten years ago, I turned fifteen on June the fourth- my parents had booked a clown for my birthday but they had had to get rid of him halfway through his act because I got so scared.
“It then continued that night. I lay petrified, convinced this clown was going to come in and kill me.
“And then you switched on a light and somehow everything became alright. My parents were tough- they wouldn’t leave lights on for me or allow me a night light. But you gave me one instead and, slowly, I stopped having night terrors. It’s funny. It must have been there before but it was that night, at my worst, that it first helped.
“So.. thank you. Really, from the bottom of my heart.” He then shook my hand, nodded and left.
What he didn’t realise is that he had dated the event to my experiment and showed that, simply by existing, or maybe just living I’ll tell myself, I had touched someone’s life.
I stopped work for a few months to try. Certainly I couldn’t help but interact a little. I kept it to a minimum, though, by ordering essentials online and saying as little as possible to the delivery men.
I had no telephone, no other internet interactions. Others touched my life, through reading and watching TV, but I sought to touch no one else’s.
Three months was my aim.
I think I made it a week, though it was years before I found out. I thought I had succeeded for so long. But...
I was quite the night owl, then, working, via the net, from home to meet deadlines for my editor. So much so that it destroyed my sleep pattern and, when I didn’t have deadlines to meet, I would stay up all night watching films or box sets. For the experiment I thought this situation would be perfect- simply existing through the night couldn’t touch any lives, surely?
Ten years after my experiment I answered my door to a teenager selling biscuits for charity. I bought a few packets and throughout the transaction, the kid had this look on his face like he had something to say. I thought little of it until, as he began to turn away, he stopped and turned back to me.
“You now, I never thanked you,” he started. To my bemused look he replied, “When I was a child, I used to get ever so scared of the dark. Sometimes I would be up all night scared of one thing or another. Just lying there, so, so afraid.
“I remember one time, just after my fifth birthday- so about ten years ago, I turned fifteen on June the fourth- my parents had booked a clown for my birthday but they had had to get rid of him halfway through his act because I got so scared.
“It then continued that night. I lay petrified, convinced this clown was going to come in and kill me.
“And then you switched on a light and somehow everything became alright. My parents were tough- they wouldn’t leave lights on for me or allow me a night light. But you gave me one instead and, slowly, I stopped having night terrors. It’s funny. It must have been there before but it was that night, at my worst, that it first helped.
“So.. thank you. Really, from the bottom of my heart.” He then shook my hand, nodded and left.
What he didn’t realise is that he had dated the event to my experiment and showed that, simply by existing, or maybe just living I’ll tell myself, I had touched someone’s life.
Written for the Light and Shade Challenge from the written prompt: by JK Rowling, "We touch other peoples' lives simply by existing."
