Hope

Saturday 29th August, 2020

I decided to go to Church this morning and not just to stream. I wanted to return library books as well as buy a newspaper. So I went via the 10am Mass. My first encounter was with an elderly parishioner who wanted to introduce me to two youngsters, distanced of course. The parishioner had been raking the Church lawn, kindly cut by a Council worker as it was long, unkempt and he realised we had lost our usual cutter to Covid. Anyway she was working on it when the two youngsters passed by and noticed she did not have a rake but was using a brush, unsuccessfully. They immediately helped..one went home and got a proper rake and the two then cleared the lawn. The parishioner was overwhelmed and so was I.

Only three of us turned up to  the service. We were still masked, gelled and distanced. Our parish Priest hobbled in late. He had been trying to get medical help as his legs were swollen to three times the normal size. His circulation is poor. He was in huge pain but still insisted on presiding. He gave a stunning sermon.

Then I went on to the library via a Jumble Sale in our community hall. All the right precautions but only two people there, of which I was one. The organiser who is ever enthusiastic and a real Dynamo in village affairs looked mildly downcast but tried not to show it. There was nothing I fancied but I decided I would buy a book. Keeping £3 for the newspaper I simply handed over to her all that I had in my pocket and told her to keep it. She counted it and said " are you sure"? What I thought were a couple of £5 notes happened to be other denominations and more notes than I had remembered. I wasn't at all sure but too late and why not make her day as the youngsters had done for the parishioner and the Priest for me?

No excitements at the library but the usual parade of health actions, leaving name and number and washing hands three times and going around the building by a huge circuitous route even though I was the only person there!

Back home. Feeling a little jaded with myself as I had tried to enjoy Auden's poetry over the last week and had been uninspired I decided to try once more, recalling some quotations. This time I made the decision to read aloud. They came alive.....

From Musee des Beaux Arts:

" About suffering they were never wrong

The Old Masters: how well they understood

Its human position, how it takes place

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; "

From 'In memory of WB Yeats':

" Far from his illness

The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,

The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;

By morning tongues

The death of the poet was kept from his poems."

From 'In memory of Sigmund Freud':

" ......For every day they die

Among us, those who were doing us some good,

          And knew it was never enough but

          Hoped to improve a little by living".