July
13, 2020
Greetings
from beyond the iron bars,
I
have been talking with friends around the country who are now struggling with
the resurgence of the virus, watching their communities become restricted
again. It is a discouraging thing to
have life become nearly normal again, only to have that autonomy we sometimes took
for granted, wrested away.
It
is not the only challenge we have, not even addressing the impact of the
illnesses and death that comes with it.
But after months of dealing with these limitations, the frustrations are
apparent.
When
I was a boy, one of my favorite books was ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ by
Alexander Dumas. In this story the main
character, Edmond Dantes, is falsely imprisoned for life, and after years in
jail, his spirit nearly broken. Then, he
makes friends with another inmate who provides him with a gift of education,
teaches him mathematics, the beauty of literature, the history of the world, as
it was known in the 1800’s.
I
haven’t thought about the book in years, not sure if it is still in my
library. It is a complex book, but what
brought it to mind was the catalyst for Dantes’ salvation. Faced spending the rest of his life in
tortuous confinement, he found hope in friendship, and in learning how large
the world really was through his education.
Even
as we set aside concerts and races and family reunions and travel, even as we
chafe under the masks and lines and inconveniences, we are given hope, if we
allow ourselves to see it.
Many
of you have made positive changes in the face of the disappointments. You have adapted and found creative ways to
keep fun in your life, to maintain relationships, to fill the hours with
something beyond even the screens that seem to dominate our lives now. You are a part of my inspiration for this
morning.
Another
book, now one of my favorites, is ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ by Amor Towles. In order to tempt you to add it to your
collection, I will tell you it is a rich, beautiful story, written in a style
that is a delight to read. And this; the
main character, Count Alexander Rostov, is sentenced to life imprisonment in
the Metropol Hotel in Moscow.
There
are many wonderful lessons of humanity in the story, but this morning I have
been focused on Rostov’s philosophy of life, probably dormant until called upon
in his confinement. The first lesson he
calls on is: “Master your circumstances, or they will master you.” Sometimes an ambitious thought, but consider
it. It does not demand you change
your circumstances, but merely be the one directing them.
The
next, a more lasting ideal that he holds to for a generation, he explains in a
conversation with a new friend. In this
sentence he shows what we are all capable of.
It is the thought of a mature, seasoned person, who understands that
life will not always offer exactly what we expect.
“As both a student of history and a man
devoted to living in the present, I admit I do not spend a lot of time
imagining how things might otherwise have been. But I do like to think
there is a difference between being resigned to
a situation and reconciled to it.”
Each of us is given this morning to respond
to. We may not always be given the
freedom of all choices, but we have the first one, how we take this moment and
do with it as we best can. It isn’t
failure to accommodate around a difficult passage in life. It is how we make the best of each
moment. Go to a dictionary and read the
definition of ‘reconcile’ and I promise you will find the word ‘harmony’.
The
two Counts found freedom in their confinement.
They passed through frustration and disappointment and hopelessness, and
reached moments where the spirit, the ‘arete’ given them by their Creator,
provided an independence from their prison, one that could not be taken back.
I
know what waits in my day today, it will be challenging. Before I turn to face the first thing I will
gather strength from the gifts I am given, a wonderful collection of
experiences and memories, the company of my family and friends, the fullness of
love in my life. Yes, I am building
gratitude in my life to balance what could take its place.
In
a scene from ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ Rostov responds to a friend who points out
his rich life, before his arrest. He
says: “Life has been generous to me in its variety.” This obscure sentence in a four hundred page
book gave me a tool that I treasure. I
ask myself, and now you; “How has life been generous to you?” The answer is also the answer to how we can
summon the gratitude, the courage, to combat what life may offer instead of
what we expect.
I
didn’t even have to ask myself this morning, the answer was given to me as I
sipped my coffee.
There
is magic in the Summerlight. It eased
out of my day yesterday in a brilliant orange, dotted with the tiny beads of
fireflies seasoning the grass. This
morning it began with a pale blue tint in the gray, pushing the last of night
into shadows in the woods, and then this whiter light, the first hint of what
the sun will be today. Two fawns stood
in the grass as the sun buttered the green around them. Life has been generous to me in its beauty.
Let’s
go change our world.
Hope
this finds you feeling free,
David
Copyright
© 2020 David Smith
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