“An Ever-Flowing Stream”

Sometimes it seems as if the world has stopped, or that we are stuck in a time-warp like that of the character in the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day” who was doomed to repeat the same day with the same events over and over; trapped in a reality he could not escape. Our continuous loop these days is called COVID19, and for almost a year its presence has dominated every event and every conversation---or so it seems.

What will today be like? Just like yesterday, and the day before that. What will tomorrow be like? Just like today. Every conversation in person, on ZOOM, in e-mails or on the phone is bound to be about COVID-19 whose ubiquitous presence has sucked the oxygen out of our daily lives.

But wait a minute! The Victorian novelist Anthony Trollop described an event in which official London was shut down. Parliament was suspended, no official meetings took place and conversations were limited to a single event. What was it that stopped the world? A prominent member of government was being tried for murder. While he was finally acquitted, during the trial and for days afterward, nothing moved and every event and conversation was about the trial. But listen to what the novelist said. 

“Nevertheless, moons waxed and waned; children were born; marriages were contracted; and the hopes and fears of the little world around did not come to an end because Finneas Finn was not to be hung.”

While the virus seems to have brought our little world to a halt, the earth continues to spin on its axis; children are conceived, born, grow up, age and die. But beyond these natural events, poets still dream, artists still paint, corn is still harvested and rockets still blast their way toward Mars.

What is more, events still have consequences.

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on:
Nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.” ― Omar Khayyám

If the book of Proverbs reminds us that there is a time for everything, what are we to make of this season when it seems time has been suspended? Recall the 1966 musical “Stop the World I want to get off.” But if it appears that the world has stopped, might this be a good time to climb aboard? Even if it seems that life is one continual merry-go-round, could it be that we are now presented with the opportunity to get our bearings and hop on?

Sometimes we are faced with the reality that things are spinning out of control, that life is hectic as we dash madly from one thing to another, or when there is no space left on the calendar. Who has time to smell the roses? Might now be a time to plant a rose bush-- or a carrot seed knowing that as Spring comes there will surely be a green leaf above the ground and an orange finger below it. Or perhaps it is the right time to bury an acorn, trusting that someone in a much later era will sit and read under the shade of an oak tree.

I suppose I’m ready for life to pick up again, but for now I’m content to dream and think, to love and be loved, to quit fretting about where I am going on this ever flowing stream that will all too quickly bear me away, and now to see what all my former busyness caused me to miss.

PS. If you need cards to use as thank you notes, I have a few made from my paintings, in my Pendleton studio. Call me for a time you might drop me. Packs of five with envelopes $5.