Words from Warwick
Bob Lovett reflects on the word ‘grit’
When George Lakey opened his heart to us in our opening session at the Yearly Meeting in Gathering at the University of Warwick, talking so movingly about his personal journey and the loss of his son, I thought my phrase for the week might be something to do with unconditional love. His story touched me deeply, as I know it did other Friends. I was reminded of the apocryphal story of the young child going through that phase of wanting to know what everything was ‘for’. Out of the blue, while engaged on some collaborative task with his father, he suddenly asked: ‘Daddy, what are people for?’ Taken somewhat aback at the philosophical depth of this question, father thought quickly, and looking down at his young son replied: ‘Tom, people are just for loving’.
Wow! What a responsibility! ‘Just for loving!’ During our week together we shared a lot of love, and sought to answer the question ‘what does love require of us?’ But, for me, just loving seems good enough and demanding enough to keep me fully engaged in the world.
However, while love abounded as it always does in our gatherings, my word for the week was something altogether different. Grit emerged as number one contender. It found itself being called upon to perform several times during our week at the University of Warwick. Like all our little words, grit is a workhorse required to fulfill a wide range of understandings. Our early deliberations focused on our understanding of grit as a measure of tenacity and fortitude, like that with which early Friends pursued the issue of slavery, or which sustains Friends today as they campaign for nuclear disarmament at Faslane, or maintain the peace vigil at Menwith Hill, or continue to address the demands made by our Canterbury Commitment. Think of all the other words that might be used to describe this form of grit, and what their implications are for our wider witness in the world today.
Then a Friend pointed out how a small piece of grit could bring machinery to a halt, or at least create the need for inspection by a member of the maintenance team. Here is grit playing the role of ‘irritant’, demanding action before normal working can be resumed. That process can be applied to ways in which our persistent and collective irritation forces politicians and other policy makers to review and rethink their plans. Later in the week another Friend pointed out how the irritation caused by a piece of grit within an oyster can produce the most beautiful pearl. Friends, are we irritating enough to enable such beautiful changes to come to pass?
In the light of these references I came to ponder further on the nature of grit. Our commitment to speaking truth to power was also mentioned several times during the week. In some cases such outspokenness can be perceived as a rather ‘abrasive’ act, and sometimes rightly so. But while grit is an abrasive, it is used not only to roughen up a surface, but also to smooth and, with persistence, polish – providing beautiful lustrous objects and insightful light. In our speaking truth to power, do we give sufficient thought to what we wish to achieve, and how we might use the abrasive qualities of grit to remind us of different ways of doing so?
Finally, to food. The grit contained in millstones has played and continues to play a vital role in the lives of all of us, producing flours and their subsequent and varied culinary products in all corners of the earth. The weight grit gives to such stones also reminds us of the cautionary ministry of Jesus (Matthew 18:1-6, KJV) ‘but whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea’. This in turn reminds me of the initiative of the youngest group of children at the Gathering who produced ribbons to remind us all of the hungry children in the world who need feeding.
Let’s give a ‘thumbs up’ to grit, ponder further on its qualities, and consider how, led by the Spirit, we might find answers to the question, ‘What does love require of me?’
Comments
Please login to add a comment
