Evolution

Posted on by Vincent

It’s been a long time since I just wrote a post straight off, but when you have guests sometimes you have little time to yourself.

I’m wondering if I am like other people. They often seem to plan their lives, both long-term and for a day at a time. I’m not the planning type. The only thing I would like to plan is plenty of empty space in my life: space; time; eternity in the crack between space and time. I realise that this is my desire in the moment that it is given to me, with no planning on my part.

Miss T at Waterperry Gardens. The other side of the obelisk is inscribed in Sanskrit. I assume that this side is an English translation. As you see, it’s a prayer in stone.

But then I reflect that I’m a child of Nature, which, if I understand the theory of evolution aright, does not make plans. Except one, of course—survival. Staying alive has rarely been my number one concern in this life—except when I’ve been in a very tight spot. One counts one’s blessings—this is surely one of the biggest. To be honest with you, my three-score years and ten has been mostly spent in choiceless carrying on, wherever I found myself, along the path of least resistance. Along with a billion others. I’ve had some big choices to face but was seldom well-enough informed to choose wisely. Much of the time I’ve not been confronted with freedom, or perhaps I was but found it too confronting. So I’ve happily worked to other people’s plans, finding a kind of freedom in choicelessness. Sometimes the words of the Book of Common Prayer echo in my brain: “O God … whose service is perfect freedom …” and it never occurs to me to think that servitude to God would be unfreedom. To be in harmony with divine power would be to go with the current, covered in blessings and grace. If I were a Christian I might think that there is sacrifice and renunciation involved. But I’m not and I don’t.

I found a gem in the Oxfam shop: a beautiful edition of Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle. At the age of 22 he was selected to go along with Captain Fitz Roy of the Royal Navy and took voluminous notes. It was a surveying expedition, took several years, covering South America, the Galapagos Islands and I know not what else—not till I take that journey myself, nearly two hundred years later propped up on pillows, through the blessing of literature. And apart from the intrinsic interest of his curiosity and observations recorded on everything he saw, there is the glimpse into what guided him to speculate on the origin of species, disturbing orthodox views ever since. Needless to say, I have found nothing of atheism in him, and everything to love in Miss T, a fervent Pentecostalist.

 

20 thoughts on “Evolution”

  5. Charles, that's fascinating. I note that Sandy was not a genuine humanist, and happily wagged his tail for everybody. It's very hard to imagine Sandy as being a genuine humanist, as one would have to be human & more highly educated than most, according to Vonnegut's definition. Nevertheless I take your comment as a warm compliment which certainly wags my tail.

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  6. Right, Rev. The devil lies in the “sometimes” of course. What of someone who always doesn't have a plan? I guess those who do have plans will say “Oh, all right, then,” and move on; as in “move on now, there's nothing to see here”!

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  7. I shall read it that there are no problems in your hemisphere, personal opinion or no; and that it is the result of prayers by Pentecostalists Cistercian nuns, and prayers in stone in English country gardens, repeated by every passer-by on a chilly Spring day. God bless us all!

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  8. Bryan please work out why, so that every line may one day be pure Vincent, for what it's worth; and when I get too old to care, I shall train an understudy, perhaps one of my grandsons, to repeat the formula and take over editorship of this blog and no one will notice the difference. Pure Vincent they will say, while the original Vincent shambles about in a dressing-gown, forgetting his own name most days.

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  10. Vincent, I try not to think of plans—of plans that should be thought of. Plans are always in the background, even if not adhered to, paid attention to. I enjoyed your musings and loved the photos. You, K, and K’s aunt look so happy and peaceful. You are a blessed man, Vincent.

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  11. I found a picture of the other side of the obelisk. As you thought, the English is a direct translation of the Sanskrit. It's constrained to have a very similar look to the original within the limits of the stone.

    I made the same journey as you, through the voice of Darwin, not so long ago. His attention to detail, and his fascination with absolutely everything, is almost hypnotic.

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  14. Thanks Rebb, I do feel blessed.

    Miss T came over from the States as a surprise for K's mother's 80th birthday. It was a wonderful thing to see these sisters reunited, so close in age, looking so alike yet their life-paths having been so different.

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