A REFLECTION

Funny how seemingly or actually disparate things can get you to thinking.

In the last few days, I have been sorting and reading some biography and reading some poetry.

And then came some insights, some conclusions, and some regrets.

First, the sorting.
Rearranging my workroom is a major task and there are papers therein that have not seen the light of day or lamp for ten years.

I came across an email from an individual we drifted away from over an incident which at the time seemed worth the drifting.
Nine years ago!
The email had been sent during the period of high emotion and I guess had been largely ignored by yours truly at the time.
It was an apology and an appeal to maintain what had been for years a most congenial relationship.

It was ignored.

Second, the biography.

I have been reading lately an unusual bio of C.S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs, The Narnian. Midway through the text, Jacobs describes the difference for Lewis of individuality and eccentricity and the importance, for the good of the community, of recognizing, accepting and valuing the latter over the former.

For Lewis, “The English love their eccentrics not because the eccentricities themselves are necessarily delightful but because the mere presence of such odd folks among them is a testimony to the community’s gentleness, tolerance, and humor.”

In other words, “…healthy communities (including families and churches) characteristically produce highly differentiated individuals, even the sorts of persons we call ‘characters’.”

For me, , this means it is not so much the individual that is the most important in this context, but rather the toleration, even the appreciation of the individual, that is the most important.

Third, the poetry.

The Study is not located in a bell-ringing neighborhood. But I have lived in such.
And the Kayla Elise routinely sails The Narrows, a delightful strip of water between two parts of our Lake in The North where the bells of nearby St. Mary’s Parish frequently are loud and clear for all to hear.

At any rate, what with illness and deaths of close friends and acquaintances this year, I got to thinking of bells and that led me to look again at a verse by John Donne, originally in the form of prose:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

So, there they were: the sorting and finding of the email; the value of tolerating and appreciating eccentricity; and the importance of avoiding loss of community whenever possible.

It is easy to imagine that one is an island and that he or she does not need anyone.

It is also a false imagination.

Two conclusions of this brief essay:
First, we should respect the individual member of society not because society revolves around that individual, but rather because such respect in itself is a noble feature of any healthy society.

To exalt the individual at the expense of the community is a perversion to be avoided.

Second, we need to treasure our acquaintances and to make every reasonable effort to maintain them.

As John Donne so artfully says,

Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.