Eye - 5 January 2024

From On this day to A friendly soak

On this day

Challenging questions – and the forbidden fruits of cheese, Marmite and broad beans – appeared in the page of the Friend on 5 January 1990, pouring from the pen of Pam Hughes.

Pam wrote: ‘“Where art thou?” The question was flung from Genesis without warning at unwary Anglican congregations one recent Sunday. I was pole-axed. Surely this must be the most profound question ever asked? There can be no other.

‘So I was surprised on that Sunday morning to find my thought drifting, apparently flippantly, to broad beans as God rampaged through the Garden in search of me. Then I remembered that a hundred years ago broad beans, together with Marmite and cheese, formed a trio of fruits forbidden to me. I had been prescribed an anti-depressant drug with a peculiar side-effect: taken in combination with cheese, Marmite or broad beans it could result in death.

‘“The fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”

‘I could imagine life without Marmite or cheese but, like you perhaps, I had not formed a view on broad beans. Life proved to be surprisingly supportable without all three forbidden fruits; and some time later I renounced the drugs and with relief lapsed back into communion with Marmite and cheese.

‘Much later I was drawn to broad beans, which must be one of our most robust and comforting vegetables: at its best in season, complete with pod, and later triumphing over freezing and canning. But broad beans are hard to find in Shepherds Bush and their scarcity makes me hunger for them with undue passion.

‘“Where art thou?” Is a question aching with loss and hunger for reconciliation. Like Eve and Adam I dive for cover when it echoes plangently throughout the Garden. “Where art thou?” spreads enquiring tendrils into every corner of my being: Did you see the sun rise today? Who gives you joy? What engages you? Whom do you care about? What makes you dance? Where do you flow?

Perhaps in the cool of another day I shall be grown up and brave enough to come out from behind the rhododendrons to say, “Comfort yourself. You would not seek me if you had not found me” (Pascal)’.