Summer: Take Time to Dawdle
Memorial Day marks something of a new beginning for people. For a few who are tradition-bound it’s time to put on seersucker and whites with nothing to fear from the fashion police. For others it’s time to rehabilitate the local version of Minnesota’s cabin up north. And for most everyone with residual memories of school days, Memorial Day rekindles the primal thrill of liberation from the classroom.
The onset of summer does seem to offer something for everybody, and at the very least it hints that the hectic pace of life is about to tone down a notch or two. That’s the promise of the opening line of George Gerschwin’s song in Porgy and Bess, which asserts that it’s “summer time, and the livin’ is easy.” For a few that tranquility actually materializes, and life really is wonderful. But for many, including Porgy and Bess, the summer will bring mixed blessings. Moments of leisure will punctuate the days and weeks of summer, but if anything the relentless toil and challenge of life will go on. The “easy livin'” will be just beyond their reach, as it always has been.
In his book Strangers to the City, the Cistercian monk Father Michael Casey writes about the need to slow down and open ourselves to the wonders around us. Of course the leisure for that might seem to be a luxury that we can ill-afford, but for the monk it is a sine qua non in the search for wisdom. To his credit Casey points out that this search for wisdom ought not be the sole purview of monks, because all of us need to get a grip on ourselves and stop and smell the roses.
Casey encourages his readers to “dawdle along the way” of life, and only then might we shed the blinders that filter out wisdom. “I suppose it was easier in a world not dominated by calendars and clocks simply to take each day as it comes,” he writes. “On the other hand, making the effort to overthrow the tyranny of time yields proportionately higher profits to those of us who try it sometimes. It is like a liberation. We have to realize, however, that the tyrant is inside us, not outside.”
I’m not about to disparage work or productivity, but all too often we distill the essence of our lives down to our work. We are what we do, and introductions these days go directly from the name of the person to the issue of occupation. And if truth be told, we’ve probably always done it that way, as the story of Moses’ first encounter with God suggests. Moses asked God for a name, and to God’s credit God gave Moses a succinct answer: “I am who I am.” There was none of this “I do this for a living.” Nope, God is being, not doing, and that is a nugget of wisdom that we can all live with. Our personal value derives from the fact that we are the image of the divine. Our daily work flows out of that belief, but work is not who we are.
One of my favorite cartoons appeared several years ago in The New Yorker Magazine. It shows a well-dressed couple about to go out to celebrate their wedding anniversary, and the husband presents to his wife a handsome leather-bound volume as a token of gratitude for another year together. “Oh Stephen, how thoughtful — an annual report on our marriage!” Obviously it’s not what she had always wanted.
Summer starts in a few days, and it offers us lots of possibilities. If we tackle it in the same way that we do the other seasons, then we may very well compile an impressive list of what we accomplished during our summer vacation. If we yield to moments of leisure, however, and use the eyes and ears that the good Lord has given to each of us, then we may end the summer with a few nuggets of wisdom that we picked up along the way.
This approach seems to me to be worth the risk. On the one hand, come Labor Day the chapter on summer in our annual report might be a bit thin, but life itself might very well be full. Some would dare to say that’s exactly what God has in mind for us this summer. Who am I to argue with that?
Notes
+On May 20th I gave a conference at the day of reflection for members of the Order of Malta in the Subpriory of Our Lady of Philermo. The gathering took place in Menlo Park, CA. In our cycle of activity we do a three-day retreat in the fall and a one-day gathering in the spring.
+Last week nineteen spring graduates of Saint John’s University began a two-week orientation and retreat in anticipation of their year as Benedictine Volunteers. Later this summer they will head out to Benedictine houses literally around the world, where they will be for a year of service.
+On May 20th Bishop Donald Kettler of Saint Cloud came to the Abbey and ordained to the priesthood our confrere Father Efrain Rosado. On Sunday Father Efrain presided at the Abbey Mass.
+Last week we had tons of rain, and it has spurred on the growth around us. In particular, the scent of lilac has pervaded the campus, and it’s been just wonderful — provided you like the scent of lilac. We have lots of it planted all over the place.
