Petrarch

Monday 22nd February, 2021

" The vaccine roll out working spectacularly ". That is what I read, that is what I shall trust, that is what will be my mantra from now for the Covid pandemic. It is a secular version of my religious and spiritual faith that God is love and those who love are of God. I am being a little simplistic but I want to believe both and I trust the latter in my faith, I trust the former in the present moment.

It has been the most delicious spring day. The sun was shining as I woke and I felt the urge to take my favourite walk to Tayport along the Fife Coast line path. I have a pair of walking boots which belonged to a deceased friend. I have been stretching them as they were a little tight so I put them on for the hike. My reliable usual boots I have retired as they have holes in them and a very worn down heel.

I took my trusted litter grabber and set off. It was glorious indeed. The sun was not in my eyes but to the right of me behind the hills and woods. To the left the Tay reflected that sun and the fields between the path and the Tay were filled with birds. The noise of those birds was powerful. As the path went through a copse or two so I noticed again the lively activities of the birds. Yes, renewal was in the air. On the ground were the usual discarded detritus of lazy insensitive mankind but I was bouncing along enjoying the warmth and sounds and felt no anger.

I met various old acquaintances and two fellow church goers, one of whom had fallen and broken her wrist and was recovering well. She is in charge of arranging the church flowers so is not hampered in her duties by the fact that the church is closed. I even saw our Pastor out in the sun.

I passed my old volunteer work place, The Charity shop, closed and with a forlorn notice hoping to 'open as soon as allowed'. Is charity at a stand still? No but merely having to find other methods, as must society and the world learn from this pandemic.

Back home and feet just a little pinched I indulged in a sour dough bread chicken sandwich and listened to Episode 17 of 'Young Heretics'. I am so stimulated by these talks even though I sometimes chaff at the bit in disagreement. Today was on Francesco Petrarch, an Italian of the 14th Century. Klavan sees him and Dante and a few others as setting the stage for the Renaissance. Petrarch was a series of apparent paradoxes but loving the Classical age, even though it had no knowledge of Jesus or Christianity, he still used the vernacular, although Latin and Greek were the languages of the educated. He realised one cannot go back in time, for the past is passed, but one can understand the wisdom and beauty of the past in the modern context. It can be of immense importance to us now. At one point he was described as bringing Classical and pagan poetry back to being alive in the Italian and Christian world. Klavan spoke of Petrarch's great love ( either real or symbolic or both like Dante's Beatrice ) Laura. Petrarch was writing of Passion, of a total love which was more than the self. Was he writing of God or a person, of unrequited love and of and with a serious Christian Faith or not?

I have since looked up Petrarch and have read some of his poetry. I also picked up some quotations which appealed to me and made me ponder:

" Suspicion is the cancer of friendship ".

" All pleasure in the world is a passing dream ".

" Who naught suspects is easily deceived ".

I prefer to remember though Petrarch's delving in to himself. The sort of mystical experience he had about climbing the mountain of life and with a vision of the summit and all one surveys....that is nothing compared to what one finds within oneself. To me he echoed Rilke. Certainly he made the point that language is vital, living language and the vernacular carries inherently so much culture, experience and inheritance. In to this can come the traditions, wisdom, beauty and piety of other civilisations and can renew us now. We do not adopt the past or live it we bring it to the present.

So with Spring....the bulbs are now resurrecting. They are not the old flowers and stems and leaves, they are the new with the roots firmly in the soil and flowering now.