In Our Time

  It's cold in our part of the world today, mind you not as cold as Calgary last week at -44, but still colder than we've had for a bit. We've had a lot of mild weather for early January in southwestern Ontario, so perhaps we're not ready for it.

 It seemed appropriate to refresh a post I put up early in our pandemic, because even if we're not exactly sheltering in place, many of us are staying close to home— except for those who have chosen this time to travel again, once the borders opened up again. 

We're getting tired of this world-wide spread of a virus that's changed our lives. I offer this message in hope.

May 2020

In a Sunday message recently, I heard a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien and The Fellowship of the Ring that expresses what many of us are thinking about now as we “shelter in place.”

 

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I," said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times.”

 

To be clear, I have not seen the whole Lord of the Ring series. I’ve only read the first Tolkien book, so I can only imagine the trouble they face. Frodo and Gandalf are perplexed about what they ought to do next, just as we are. And perhaps they are also afraid. Already they have faced the unfamiliar and terrifying and now there’s more.

 

            While heeding best medical and leader’s advice, we wish this would be over, and that we didn’t need to contemplate further news of the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts have compared it to other times in history, perhaps trying to give us historical evidence and hope that one day this difficulty too will pass. 

 

Tolkien continues, “But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

 

And that’s where we find ourselves too. Yet we know, as Christians, “who” we have in our corner, as our hope. We know who sees all, understands all and knows all. 

 

We can be honest about where this situation leads our thoughts and emotions, especially when people are out of work and perhaps with a limited budget, and teaching their children at home. 

 

I’ve been hearing stories not just about our front-line workers in health care and food services, but also of others striving to make the best of a difficult time. A fellow author shops for groceries for frail seniors in her community; children tape their artwork in the windows of their home to bring cheer to those who pass by; people have porch-to-sidewalk conversations with neighbours, family, and friends. Other individuals are sending positive messages on Twitter and Facebook. 

 

Maybe this is the best we can do for now. That and offering hope to those who have none, and praying for those who need our prayers, as we stay safe and strive to remain healthy. Until we gather again, take care of yourselves.   

 

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Back to today: 

 

What I say to you this day is to offer hope, to smile when you  go out, for you don't know how it might help one person today. My check-out girl at the grocery store today who smiled ( I could see her crinkled eyes around her mask) and smiled at me. And I smiled back and we chatted a couple of minutes as she passed my items past the scanner. It was good to see her after so long. 

 Maybe smiling at someone else I meet but have never spoken to before. Someone with a small antsy child to whom I might offer my place in line, because that child is tired and hungry and just wants to go home ( as does her mother or father, as the case may be). And imagine Jesus standing in line with you, helping you through the day. How would that feel?

  

A Literary Pilgrimage to Oxford — Martin

When my wife and I were planning our trip to England this summer, I wanted to make sure we visited Oxford. Oxford University has produced so many exceptional and diverse writers such as: W.H. Auden, Lewis Carroll, Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde, A.A. Milne, Dorothy L. Sayers, Jonathan Swift and John Donne — not to mention musicians, preachers and political leaders.

During our brief time, I managed to slip away from our tour to step into the quadrangle at Balliol College where one of my favourite poets — Gerard Manley Hopkins — and one of my favourite novelists — Graham Greene — had been students.

Above all, I wanted to visit a little pub in Oxford informally known as “The Bird and Baby”, but officially named “The Eagle and Child”. This was the place where C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien and others met for years to discuss their writing and to share friendship. Lewis and various members of the “Inklings”, as they were known, met in “The Rabbit Room” of the pub between 1939 and 1962. Today the little room has become something of a shrine.

To enjoy our lunch in “The Eagle and Child” made C.S. Lewis and his friends seem that much closer — especially when it turned out that our waitress was from Calgary. Whenever I have a chance to return to Oxford, with more time to wander, I’ll certainly investigate Magdalen College where Lewis taught, and visit the home he shared with his brother Warnie, “The Kilns” — and I will stop for lunch at “The Bird and Baby”.

As a writer these are all good reasons to travel to a city as inspiring as Oxford.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the award-winning author of the poetry collections Poiema (Wipf & Stock) and So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed (Rubicon Press). They are both available at: www.dsmartin.ca

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