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The Truth of Fiction

27/6/2020

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Lockdown has given some of us the opportunity to catch up with our reading. Books are a great gift and a great teacher if we read them in the right way. I belong to a few book clubs – one focuses on fiction and meets once a month, another meets once a week and focuses on a chapter or two from a theological book which gives rise to a lot of discussion – even argument. Another for a time met once a month to discuss a spiritually related book but has been meeting weekly during lockdown which has suited our purposes better as we’re getting through the book more systematically and more quickly. Having taken part in these groups as well as university seminars and discussion it always strikes me how we come at our reading from different angles and for different purposes.

Some people approach their reading from a purely academic point of view, happy to analyse texts and critique the author, pointing out inadequacies and omissions. This approach is good for academic texts and some non-fiction books. The discussion – and even argument – can be challenging and lead us to expand and clarify our thinking. Sometimes, though, I find this can be a bit frustrating as I like to let books speak to me, to look for what they can teach me about life and human nature – and I like to share the wisdom we’ve gleaned from our reading. And sometimes, too much analytical criticism can be a smoke screen for looking beyond the story to the truth it reveals. This is especially so, I think, of fiction. Yes, fiction can be and hopefully is enjoyable, can help us escape into unfamiliar worlds and break the tedium of our everyday lives. But it can give us an insight into human relationships and the reality of the world in which we live.  To see the truth contained in the story or the words is to recognise the sacred nature of a literature that many would class as secular.

I recently came across this quotation from Louise Gluck “When you read anything worth remembering, you liberate a human voice; you release into the world again a companion spirit." The power and the truth of this struck me with some force when I read it. True as it is of many writers it’s been particularly true for me during this pandemic as I’ve read my way through the novels of Elizabeth Strout. Elizabeth Strout is captivated by the idea that it’s not possible to fully know another person. The observation occurs often in her books that we can never truly know another or what they are going through. We can only really know what it is to live in our own skin. Because of this we tend to give off signals that are misunderstood, we tend to judge others by their outward behaviour and our interpretation (often wrong) of that behaviour or our expectations of them. Relationships flounder from a number of issues such as a lack of honesty, an inability to communicate, a fear of others or a sense of inferiority, an inability to face up to ourselves.

Strouts’ novels are all situated in small towns in Maine, USA and the characterisation of the residents, the relationships between them and the way their lives overlap is fascinating as well as insightful. I was so intrigued by two of her books, Olive Kitteridge and  Anything is Possible that no sooner had I finished them than I turned to the first page to begin again. I’ve never done that with a book before but this time I felt there was more to be gleaned and I didn’t want to let the characters go. I’d planned to give the books away as Christmas presents but I’m not sure I’ll be able to part with them as I think I’ll be drawn to reading them again and again.

Perhaps the most famous of Strouts’ books is ‘Olive Kitteridge’ A Novel in Stories for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 2009 and which is now a mini-series on Amazon Prime. The book takes the form of 13 short stories that are interrelated but discontinuous in terms of narrative. Each chapter gives an insight into the character of a cantankerous, rude, opinionated, inconsistent, emotionally closed woman who treats her husband and son badly, thinking there is no need to express how she feels about them – any mother loves her son so no need to show or tell him. But there is a side to Olive that her family don’t see and comes out from time to time in her encounter with former pupils and their recollections of her.   
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In spite of all of this there is something likeable about Olive that arouses our sympathy in spite of her prickly exterior that refuses to relax into life.  Perhaps I liked her because of the stresses and strains, the inner struggles, the outward conflicts and expressions that many of us face in our journey through life, even if not so extreme. At the end of the book there is a glimmer of hope which is realised, I think, in the sequel ‘Olive Again’ which was only written last year and published in Britain last month. Thank goodness for it for the Olive we’re left with is a woman who has mellowed and come to a self-realisation that is honest and painful but which she faces up to with a courage that allows her to face old age with equanimity. Perhaps none of us could ask for more
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The Virus of Racism

14/6/2020

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It’s as though a pressure cooker has exploded. For months now people have been confined to their homes, observing social distancing, working from home, home schooling their children as we try to confine this silent and invisible virus which is no respecter of persons no matter what their colour, faith, sexual orientation. It’s brought out the best in us- or at least some of us and we’ve taken pride in the neighbourliness, care and concern that’s been obvious. Now we see violence and rage as people respond to the terrible murder of George Floyd in The United States of America. It’s brought to the fore a racism that is founded on slavery. It’s highlighted the evils of colonialism and how countries and cities like my own have benefitted from slavery, how people from black and ethnic communities are discriminated against.   

I do wonder, however, if the violence indicates something of the pressures under which people have been living for the past months. There‘s a lot of fear, grief and anger around.  Maybe it’s unconscious but it’s lurking about and something we’re probably all tapping into.  People are unsure of how we’re going to come out of lockdown, fearful for their jobs, insecure about how society will be. Some are champing at the bit to get back to normal, others are fearful that we will get back to normal, hoping  but unsure of what the new normal might be. People are tired and weary, missing their families and the kind of activities that can help them let off steam. So for some people the present violence seems to be a way of doing just that.  We have some people wanting to eradicate all evidence of the past, others wanting to protect it – and all this has become focussed on the statues of philanthropists whose fortune has benefitted societal and educational institutions. 

I’m not for pulling down these statues, not because I want the individuals put on a pedestal but because I would want the true story of what they did told. It’s possible to put beside the statue of a slave owner another statue that shows the source of their wealth and an explanation of how they earned it and contributed to the slave trade.  Street names in Glasgow that remember slave owners could have a plaque telling their story so that we don’t forget. We cannot and must never forget the past. We carry it with us in our subconscious and if we are to be free of its tyranny we must face it with honesty and courage.  As the poet Maya Angelou said at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton,  “history, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived. But, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

There are many hidden viruses in our society – racial inequality is just one of them.  What distresses me at this time is the smoke screen put up by  Covid 19. We have so much information about it. We recognise that people from black and ethnic backgrounds seem to be more susceptible to the virus. We acknowledge our dependence on care workers, nurses, unskilled workers who keep the infrastructure of society going. We admit that they are underpaid and not given the recognition they should be. We accept that the National Health Service could not survive without overseas workers, both skilled and unskilled. We are warned of the recession that is coming in the aftermath of the virus, of the need for a new kind of society which will learn from the good that has been around.

And yet, the Westminster Government is intent on an immigration bill which will limit the numbers coming into the country of those who have been seen to be so important for our health and well – being.  It is denying unaccompanied children refuge. It is refusing to compromise on the leaving date for Brexit to ease a recession. Members of the government, like many billionaires in this country, have actually benefitted from Covid. They have their businesses overseas so that they don’t pay tax but ask the Government to pay to furlough their employers.  

Yes, there’s a lot to be angry about and we should protest. But we need to protest not with violence but with love and compassion. Each of us needs to recognise that we are all implicated in some way in these evils. Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us that ”when we look deeply into ourselves, we see both flowers and garbage. Each of us has anger, hatred, depression, racial discrimination, and many other kinds of garbage in us, but there is no need for us to be afraid. In the way that a gardener knows how to transform compost into flowers, we can learn the art of transforming anger, depression, and racial discrimination into love and understanding”. This is our task which will only be accomplished by honesty, courage, honouring the pain within and without, letting our voice be heard and trying in whatever way we can to make a new world possible.

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The Spirit and  the Law

2/6/2020

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​This weekend the Christian and Jewish community have been celebrating significant festivals which are theologically and historically connected.  For Jews Shavuot takes place 50 days after Pesach and for Christians Pentecost 50 days after Easter.  Originally Shavuot was an agricultural festival when the faithful would come on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to give thanks for the wheat harvest. It was during Shavuot that Jesus’ disciples were emboldened by the gift of the Holy Spirit to come out of hiding to tell the story of Jesus. The festival now celebrates the gift of the Torah, the Law, which is the living presence of God amongst His People while Pentecost celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit alive and active within the Church.

These two festivals could be seen to reflect what Christians once perceived to be the difference between Judaism and Christianity. Judaism, attached to and bound by the Law, was considered to be legalistic while Christianity had been liberated from the Law and was alive with the Holy Spirit. Law and spirit were seen to stand in opposition to one another. This was of course to misunderstand the nature of the two festivals, particularly the place of the Torah within Judaism. 
The Torah and the Torah Scrolls are, for Jews, the symbol of God’s presence, the most sacred object of their faith and to live according to the Torah is to keep alive God’s presence among them. Last year I was privileged to be at an event in St Andrews University in which a Torah Scroll was given a new home in an Ark specially adapted to hold it. For me it was a privilege to see not only the respect and reverence of the Jewish community as they welcomed the Scroll to its new home but the joy and festivity expressed in their dancing as the Scroll was passed from person to person. I was very privileged to be part of this and humbled especially as some Orthodox women friends wouldn’t touch the Scroll because of its holiness. It seemed like sacrilege to them to do so.

In the light of this it’s easy to see how important the festival of Shavuot is, what a joyful thing it is to remember and celebrate the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mt Sinai. But to understand the Torah it’s important to understand the spirit behind it.  And this is perfectly illustrated by the fact that the Book of Ruth is the scripture read in the synagogue at Shavuot.  This is the story of Ruth, a gentile, whose kindness to her mother-in-law Naomi, whom she refuses to leave after the death of her husband, results in kindness being shown to her by Boaz, who marries her and cares for her and Naomi. The story is about love and concerned caring for others – chesed, loving kindness, an important virtue within Judaism. It is chesed that characterises Judaism’s relationship with God and with others and is at the heart of Shavuot. The giving of the Law was the moment when God made a covenant with His people, best described, suggests Lord Jonathan Sacks, in the words of the Prophet Hosea. “I betroth you to me forever, I betroth you to me in justice and righteousness and kindness and compassion. I betroth you to me in faith, and you will know the Lord.”  This is the Spirit in which the Torah is loved and lived and which renders daily living an act of worship.

The Christian festival of Pentecost also celebrates God’s presence among His people. This time the gift is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, that same Spirit which animated Jesus. It was the gift given to the disciples of Jesus after his resurrection. It gave them the courage to continue his work and live according to his way.  It turned fearful men and women into courageous witnesses. It brought peace and joy and, above all, love.  All else seemed to be unimportant in the light of this overpowering gift. But it did not do away with Law. To live by God’s Spirit is to live in love, to seek justice, to care for the poor and marginalised, to have a concern for the common good – all the concerns that are at the heart of Torah.  Of course it’s always possible to live according to the letter of the law, an approach which can result in inflexibility, judgementalism, self-righteousness. It’s also possible to live in a spirit of freedom that is in fact a cover for selfishness, self-seeking, a lack of commitment and a refusal to conform or adapt to those around us. Both Judaism and Christianity have seen both approaches throughout their history for the gift of the Spirit didn’t prevent Christianity from developing its own inflexible laws and structures. 
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The Torah for Jews is like a sacrament, a tangible expression of God’s presence amongst them. It  can be respected and revered by Christians. The Holy Spirit on the other hand is intangible. Like the wind it can only be seen by its effect – fidelity, kindness, compassion, courage, justice, peace, joy, generosity, care for one another and creation – bringing about all that is best in human nature. And wherever these are present there is God’s Spirit, a Spirit that blows where it wills and cannot be contained by any law or tradition, even while present within them. It is God’s Spirit amongst us that gives hope to our world and evident in the goodness and generosity around us.   

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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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