There is a new piece of public art not far from my house. Jen and I saw it being installed just a few days ago and yesterday I got a closer look. There are four parts to it, each of the parts being an upward arrow. On the outside of each part there are nature images and some text. The inside of each part displays a large number of images, kids’ art and sketches and words, having to do with COVID-19. Some of the squares contain direct references to the pandemic, for example, “COVid-19 is Sad. I hate it.” Other squares are images only, people in masks, a Zoom class, or depictions of distancing.
The art brought to mind questions of what and when we commemorate and about the nature of time . I was viewing the monument to a particular event, to an era, yet I was somehow still within the era itself, or at least not far removed. I thought about seeing the art years from now, looking back on a more distant time. I thought about how monuments are mostly viewed by people who do not live in the time referenced.
There can be a sense of the brevity of time, a feeling that the monument is up too soon. We are not ready to be memorialized.
I have been reading a book that is coming out this September. The author, James K. A. Smith, is a philosophy professor and the Editor in Chief of Image Journal. The book is called, “How to Inhabit Time.” I received an advance copy because I recently interviewed Jamie Smith for an upcoming episode of the Rector’s Cupboard podcast.
The book is beautiful. It is written in the context of faith. It speaks to the context of the individual and the context of community around matters of time and what it means to be fully alive. Jamie Smith writes about how a healthy sense of time can allow us to see wonder in our life and beauty in the world. He argues that so much of our lives, (and so much of our “Christianities”) fail to live within time, but instead, somehow, seek to be above time. Nostalgia holds us in thrall to a past that never existed, and fear and judgment prevent us from being hopeful in the present about the future.
“You are the singular bearer of your history”
James K. A. Smith
Early this morning I went out for a bike ride. The route included the Lions Gate Bridge and Stanley Park. Want to know what I was thinking about at least partway around the park? I was thinking about stressors in my day ahead, things that I had to do. I was thinking about a thing over which I had little control, but some consternation and concern. I was living in a time other than the actual moment of my experience. This was while I was riding early in the morning in one of the more beautiful places in the world. Why do we do this kind of thing? If we could find the spiritual maturity and grace in which to live more of the actual moments of our lives, perhaps we would find greater hope for the future, less fear.
Lions Gate Bridge, Vancouver
Last year around this time there was a heat dome in this province. This year it has been unseasonably cold. I don’t know anyone who is longing for the oppressive heat of last year, but there is a tendency to miss the blessing of this year. In the deadly heat we would have sung praises for the days that we have had recently. We ought to sing those praises.
In his book, Jamie Smith introduces the term “temporal dislocation”. He says that we often think of disorientation as spatial. That is we feel dis-placed. Temporal dislocation refers to the truth that we often fail to live in the actual time that we are given. What might it mean to become aware of how I tend to miss out on life and vocation by living a time, a moment, other than the one I inhabiting?
I recommend Jamie’s book. There is a great deal of thoughtfulness and beauty and help and hope within it.
A prayer for you (and for me) today:
Dear God;
Help me to live this day and this moment instead of the next one and the previous one. Grant us an awareness of the joy (and pain) of this day and the blessing that it is to be alive in this moment. I pray for those who are held down by an overwhelming sense of sorrow or regret. I pray for those who are held down by a paralyzing fear of the future.
Are you okay with churchy, God? Because I have a churchy thing to include in this prayer; I’ll quote the Bible to you (are you okay with that?).
“This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
You know the chapter and verse.
Beautifully written - thanks!