A few days ago I was speaking with a parishioner and we were remarking about how it was already July…the time over the last few months just seemed to slip by as all the normal markers of our lives were swallowed up in the bland routines of sheltering-in-place. Yes, in truth the saint days, my birthday and other important occasions did mark the movement of time but for the most part it has all blended together as a fairly long blur of just one more day.
The only other time I had this feeling was when I was serving in the Marine Corps and our squadron was assigned for one year to the USS Forrestal. We went on a years cruise. How romantic is that? Well it wasn’t. While at sea our work schedule was 12 on and 12 off, seven days a week, each and every day of the month. This was only broken up by the occasional port call, which often seemed like a four day weekend only to pull up anchor and begin again. It was made worse by our use of the Julian calendar to keep track of different work and maintenance schedules…time seemed to meld together into an endless boredom where very little changed.
What happened during that long year on the boat was something very important in my life, it began with books. I was a voracious reader at the time…mostly very bad science fiction and crime novels. The long work hours and the time off with nothing much to do gave ample opportunity to read. Luckily for me, I was directed by two wonderful men to read something beyond the pulp and throw away novels I was consuming. I can remember beginning to read “The Guns of August” by Barbara W. Tuchman and the questions each of them asked as I digested this story of the beginning of the First World War. It was not the quick and easy read of war and destruction I was used to but rather a deep and thoughtful (and yes troubling) description of the toll of those first bloody days.
What followed was the reading of several great books and the same times of questions and answers…it made the days move by differently as it focused the hours of boredom into a time of contemplation and pondering some of the greater things of life.
Maybe this is one of the lessons we can learn from these long months of time slipping by, the willingness to ponder and contemplate, the ability to slow down and wrestle with the greater things of life. What we find when we take the time to rest on an idea, and issue or a problem…when we take time to share thanks for the blessings, the graces and the gifts is…it’s not always simple or as straight forward as we imagined it would be when we began. The world wishes to offer us hashtag and simple solutions so we can run to the next hashtag and simple solution fixing problems, issues and implementing ideas in one quick dash to an imaginary line. Happily, that is not how life works. Life, as God gives, is a deepening and strengthening of loving relationships where each and every problem and blessing, idea and grace, issue and gift is mixed into knowing our soul and the souls of others in the light of God’s creative goodness.
Resting and wrestling with life, with our brothers and sisters, with God draws us into a more profound understanding of our human weakness and strength and how much more we are than an isolated individual when we choose to join in the celebration of our differences and gifts.
Happy 4th of July weekend.
God Bless
Fr. Mark.