THE CLOISTER STUDY
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“Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke
Saturday 25 April 2020
Monday 20 April 2020
FROM THE CLOISTR _ MEDIATION ON WORRY
A mediation from the cloister:
The time of La Peste is a time of worry. We worry about our families, will the virus strike them? We worry about our futures - will I have a job, will I be able to put food on the table, will I pay my rent or mortgage? More broadly we worry about solutions: Will my government rise to the occasion and formulate a national plan to combat the pandemic. Will I receive a stimulus cheque, will I be able to pay my employees, will I be able to save my business.
And perhaps the most personal worry will I get sick? And if I do will I live or die?
We think this time of worry is unique to our time or generation(s), our country our city or town. But even cursory contemplation in this time of isolation will enlighten us that we are not unique in worrying.
I have, with the silence of self isolation and abundant time in the cloister, been reading The Partridge Diaries. In particular my recent reading has been in Frances Partridge's war (WWII) diary. For her and for much of the world this was a time of extreme worry. When will the next raid be? Will a bomb drop on my house? Will my children survive? Should I send them into the country? Where can I buy food? What went wrong in Libya? Will there be an invasion?
Partridge had these and other worries -
In response she wrote the following I think to console herself and others about the futility of worry. Perhaps she was a stoic and perhaps we all should be.
“We talk a good deal about the futility of worry. Well all I can say is if one can’t stop worrying one must just endure it, futile and also exhausting though it is. Any way time goes on passing inevitably, and will in the end carry one into the grave where worrying stops.”
Frances Partridge – War Diary 1942 17,9
We also must endure - in the sure and certain hope that there will be an end, that we will come through this and create a better time, a better country and better World.
In hope and faith,
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