What do we know?

Thursday 7th January, 2021

Somehow the happenings surrounding Biden and Trump in America feel surreal. I have a few American friends and they have been shocked. Yet they tell me that there are many Americans who support the action against the politicians on Capitol Hill. It would seem that the Nation is deeply divided. They ask me if Great Britain also is divided mentioning Brexit, Scottish Independence and some of the comments they have heard concerning our reaction to the pandemic. Then they ask about Prince Andrew and the Sussexes and how people feel. I am not sure why there is so much fascination for me in the political shenanigans across the world. I hope it is because I care that a liberal and generous democracy which has concern for people at its heart will triumph. My continued reading of Carretto also emphasises in me that humans have solutions to many problems but they are not gods. We could feed the hungry, we could clothe the naked, we could house the homeless, we could cure more people, we could care for our environment more sincerely and we should. Yet there is the mystery of creation, of the divine, of the Unknown, of the whole existence of this world. Then we need to look to the human being...the mind, the heart, the body, the spirit and we realise we do not know it all, in fact we know very little. I would include the behaviour of some politicians and some of the public over the Trump defeat in the Presidential race as part of the mysterious. Why do they behave in that way, think as they do and react as we have seen?

This morning I was flummoxed by myself. I woke feeling mildly depressed, just what one might call 'under the weather'. I wanted to stay in bed when I noticed the rain and the coldness of the morning. In fact I did not get up until 10am for a cup of coffee and then back to bed to read and muse. Then more coffee and finally dressing at midday. By then the sun had come out and my mood lifted.

I then went on a virtual trip of Venice. I last visited Venice 45 years ago. I loved it. I was given a bed in the monastery attached to San Georgio Maggiore. A friend who was an Abbot at the time gave me a letter of introduction in Latin. I wandered Europe with it and it was a passport to many a monastic cell and guest house. Venice was en fete at the time and the islands were linked by bridges of boats. The smell, the architecture, the canals and tiny streets, the people and the history, all of it overwhelmed me. I felt a nostalgia as I did the virtual tour but nothing compares to being there and recollections and happy memories flooded in.

Then my walk with my grabber. Out along the Tay and Fife coastal route to Tayport and beyond. It was a long walk, nearly two hours and it was gorgeous with clean fresh sea air and views over Tentsmuir forest and on to St Andrews. I caught a bus back, being the only person on board. I had picked up three bags of rubbish.

On my return I had some lunch of home made fibre bread given by a friend. I read and then was called to another virtual trip to Santiago in Chile. Venice had been in fog, Santiago was in sunshine with a temperature of 30C. I have never been to South America and although I enjoyed the tour of the 'bohemian district' of Santiago I had been spoilt by Venice.

I made two loaves of soda bread and had two huge hot slices covered in butter. That put final pay to any thought of depression. I am buoyed up as I write. However I do find myself accepting that I know so very little about anything and having to trust, hope, face things as they are and be prepared to be patient. It is all so mysterious in the many levels of mystery.