still here, still seeking

Despite all wicked rumours to the contrary (& despite looking suspiciously as if photo-shopped into this scene, indeed) - that absentee Bridgewater hasn’t gone to ground quite yet, to dodge his return to parish duty …

However these last few weeks of sabbatical leave have, I admit, taken on a rather different flavour. I’ve been busy writing on holiness, but don’t feel quite ready to burst into public print just yet … and then also the terrible atrocities in Paris have cast a long shadow over everything, of course

It felt inappropriate to just carry on blogging away about spiritual life, from way up here in my Canadian ivory tower - but then I came across some words from a century ago, that helped restore a more godly perspective

Evelyn Underhill is here writing the preface to ‘Practical Mysticism’, her popular version of earlier more erudite tomes on spirituality; and the date is 12th September, 1914. What she says of mysticism, goes absolutely for the quest for holiness also :

This little book, written during the last months of peace, goes to press in the first weeks of the great war. Many will feel that in such a time of conflict and horror, when only the most ignorant, disloyal, or apathetic can hope for quietness of mind, a book which deals with that which is called the “contemplative” attitude to existence is wholly out of place. So obvious, indeed, is this point of view, that I had at first thought of postponing its publication …

Yet, the title deliberately chosen for this book - that of “Practical” Mysticism - means nothing if the attitude and the discipline which it recommends be adapted to fair weather alone : if the principles for which it stands break down when subjected to the pressure of events, and cannot be reconciled with the sterner duties of the national life

To accept this position is to reduce mysticism to the status of a spiritual plaything. On the contrary, if the experiences on which it is based have indeed the transcendent value for humanity which the mystics claim for them - if they reveal to us a world of higher truth and greater reality than the world of concrete happenings in which we seem to be immersed - then that value is increased rather than lessened when confronted by the overwhelming disharmonies and sufferings of the present time

It is significant that many of these experiences are reported to us from periods of war and distress : that the stronger the forces of destruction appeared, the more intense grew the spiritual vision which opposed them. We learn from these records that the mystical consciousness has the power of lifting those who possess it to a plane of reality which no struggle, no cruelty, can disturb : of conferring a certitude which no catastrophe can wreck. Yet it does not wrap its initiates in a selfish and otherworldly calm, nor isolate them from the pain and effort of the common life. Rather, it gives them renewed vitality; administering to the human spirit not - as some suppose - a soothing draught, but the most powerful of stimulants

Stayed upon eternal realities, that spirit will be far better able to endure and profit by the stern discipline which the race is now called to undergo, than those who are wholly at the mercy of events; better able to discern the real from the illusory issues, and to pronounce judgment on the new problems, new difficulties, new fields of activity now disclosed

Sorry the quote is a touch long, and couched in bygone idiom perhaps - but I hope you will agree she is saying something important for us to hear again today, a century further along the road

That spiritual wisdom is what has prompted me to break my own small “radio silence” at this point - and I put it together with this simple prayer for God’s leading and vision, as we each seek how we must now respond :

For the time being in this post I thought I’d just try passing on a last bit of Canadian flavour, before my own life begins to move on (next week I’m over the border in Seattle, which is sure to be a different experience again)

For example I much enjoyed this “state of the nation” email from our good friend David, with whom Jebs & I stayed on Vancouver Island last month :

“You will know that Canada is now officially renamed Utopia, under the sunny ways of our young leader, Justin - he of the Haidi tattoo. There is gender equality in the cabinet, every conceivable class, race and caste is represented by the members of parliament, scientists are un-muzzled, the Syrians are coming, the long-form census is reinstated, middle class tax is to be cut, climate change will be addressed, and veterans will become respected once more. That darned neighbour to the south has frustrated we Utopians again (Keystone XL pipeline); but, hey, we’ll always be good neighbours so long as we do what they say. You’ll get a chance to see our leader and some of his bright new team as they stroll onto the world stage at a variety of international gatherings before Christmas. Make sure to ask him for a selfie if you meet him on the street. Fingers crossed that the honeymoon endures - we are all so optimistic”

David’s mention of Trudeau’s “Haidi tattoo” helpfully reminds me that I’ve been very remiss, in not yet paying tribute to First Nation hospitality during my time here. For in these parts that constitutes a major cultural faux pas …

Every church service I have been to (and indeed every public event like a concert or lecture) has begun with a verbal announcement which goes something like this : “We acknowledge these lands upon which we meet as the ancestral, cultural, traditional and unceded lands of the Musqueam and Salish people, from time immemorial”

The Salish are the most numerous of the local indigenous tribal groups, occupying the west coast & islands from farthest Alaska down to the mouth of the Columbia river. This land has indeed been their home for at least the last 10,000 years - perhaps even right back to the last Ice Age

Whereas tribal peoples on the prairies lived in portable wigwams (because to hunt of course meant to camp, on the track of migrating animals) - those who fished the coast were settlers. As a result they built impressive villages of red cedar, where an extended family of up to 50 might share a single great longhouse, something like this :

This contemporary First Nations longhouse belongs to the UBC campus, and was described as a precious refuge by one student I met there : “as soon as I smelt the cedar, I felt home”, she said …

It stands close by the internationally famous Museum of Anthropology, that archives amazing examples of First Nations art and culture. This of course includes many “totem poles” - which I discover is in fact a western misnomer

Early explorers mistook these symbolic carved poles for totem idols used in worship … whereas in fact they are heraldic expressions of family identity, traditionally sited both outside the village & supporting one’s longhouse

Rather like Australians with aborigines, Canadians nowadays take great care to honour First Nations culture - consciously seeking to make up for much less respectful treatment in the past

However I enjoyed historian Alan Morley’s deliciously nuanced profile of the Salish peoples - and their somewhat bitter-sweet, erstwhile cultural habits (in his city biography ‘Vancouver : from Milltown to Metropolis’ pub. 1961) :

“Their political organization was benign, their social system intricate, their arts and crafts profound in concept and expert in execution; in none of the language divisions did women occupy a position of inferiority … Slaves were not, as a rule, unkindly treated, being regarded as inferior members of the family - but they were liable to sudden and brutal elimination in times of scarcity, and occasionally became ritual sacrifices”

… rough with the smooth, I guess

Morley then proceeds delicately to portray the “melancholy pride” that might legitimately have been felt, finding one had managed to fall into ancient Salish hands :

“Cannibalism, often charged against them by early explorers, was never more than an occasional symbolic religious ritual, such as sharing among the men of the village the heart or liver of a particularly courageous or distinguished enemy slain in battle

It was a matter of character, not calories, and the victim’s mourners would cherish the manner of his end with a certain melancholy pride …”

Observing such social niceties with due decorum & civility has clearly now entered the Canadian soul. One of the most pleasant experiences here has been to sample the general culture of politeness, evident at every turn

For instance - getting off the back of a city bus, all generations never once fail to call out “Thank-you” (actually it’s more like “think-yew”) to the driver

And when I took cash out of the ATM this morning, its parting shot went exactly like this : “It’s been a pleasure serving you, have an excellent day” … “I’m really most obliged - and the same to you also”, I quite naturally replied

A last example - I also much appreciated this similarly genteel, and most especially ‘thoughtful’ offer, spotted at a popular local café nearby :

And finally, I thought I’d close by passing on a happy thought for any fellow keep-fit fanatics out there. Having proudly joined your ranks for a whole month now, I have made an important and delightful discovery - this courtesy of Gretchen Reynolds, fitness columnist for the New York Times

Recent research led by a Dr. Ivy has discovered one particular food that provides the ideal ratio of carbohydrates & protein, to boost human fuel replenishment after a bout of hard exercise …

It reportedly aids muscle recovery & growth, and fat loss, and endurance capacity. No, it isn’t french fries - but I promise it does still offer conclusive proof that God is Good …

For, as Reynolds excitedly reveals in her latest New York best-seller :

“That food is low-fat chocolate milk. Science urges you to drink it after exercise.

Those two sentences make me happy.

‘I’m a big fan of chocolate milk,’ Dr Ivy says. “I drink it all the time”

“You could” (she concludes) “if you distrust the simplicity of Hershey’s syrup, invest in premixed, bottled protein-carbohydrate drinks or prepared sports protein shakes and powders instead.

But really, why?”