At a Quaker meeting on a recent Sunday, I'd settled into the silent worship, asking Christ's Holy Spirit, our guardian and guide, to take charge of my thoughts and prayers. After a while, two images began circling in my mind. Both were from my past.
One was of Anne's and my Fly Creek barn as it was about a dozen years ago: a solid post-and-beam structure, but covered on the outside by very old, discolored white paint. The paint was cracked and flaking; some pieces had pulled free and were hanging half loose from the boards. What was called for was a really thorough scraping, followed by couple of coats of barn paint.
To save work on the scraping, I rented a heavy-duty pressure washer. What fun that was! I blasted away with the powerful stream of water, and old paint went flying. After a few days' drying, plus some scraping to tidy up, the barn was ready for me to swab on the thick paints a deep barn red. What a change in appearance, and no more worries about wind-driven rain rotting away the old boards.
The second image came from about 50 years farther back. It was of a wooden rowboat that our family kept tied down at the creek near our home. Pop and I would untie it and row across the creek to the shady shallows to troll for pike, a big fish and a real fighter when hooked.
I'd do the rowing, and as a summer progressed, the job got steadily harder for an 11-year-old. Pop, who'd be readying lines and affixing minnows, would smile sympathetically.
"We're hauling a lot of barnacles, son. Can you feel them?"
I could, in my arms and shoulders, with every pull on the oars.
Sometime that summer I hooked my first big pike, about 18 inches. It bent my rod almost double and I remember Pop's calm voice coaching, "Play him, son -- he's big. Don't reel until he turns and your line slacks off. Then, wind it in!"
I did, and I got him -- saw him first swimming right below the surface. That's when I raised him out of the water and stared open-mouthed at the still jumping, twisting fish. And that's when Pop shouted.
"Swing him over the boat, son -- quick, before he shakes free!"
And I did, and the fish shook free but fell onto the boards between our feet. My hair still rises at thought of that day, when I rowed home without a moment's thought to those barnacles dragging against my strokes. For every stroke brought me closer to running up the driveway and in the kitchen door to hold up my prize before my mother. I did run up the hill, leaving Pop to tie up the boat and carry the oars and rods up after me. I don't think he minded a bit. He understood.
When that fall came and we'd hauled the boat up and into our yard, my older brother and I attacked those barnacles. It was hard work, scraping away at those thick, brittle shells. We got it done, though, and when the overturned boat had dried from a thorough hosing down, we laid on a new coat of bottom paint.
I remember the day, hot and humid, and my brother, now an old man like me, pushing black hair out of his eyes as we scraped on, side by side.
Why those two images, I wondered. And then it came to me. I need scraping. My own soul is coated with troublesome layers _ past egoism, selfishness, indifference to others' needs. It's full of barnacles that slow it down, impede its journey home.
I need power-washing. I need scraping.
But I can't do the job alone. I can't get at my soul. And I begin dimly to see that, for humans, pain and physical impairment may be the Spirit's very own tools.
The French writer Leon Bloy nailed it, I think: "There are parts of the soul than cannot grow until watered by our own tears."
He was talking about our own pain, and how our suffering, great or small, can bring growth. And not just in ourselves, but in real empathy for others' suffering.
There's a magnificent economy in our lives that I don't pretend to understand. It's a part of the plan of God, who is love as we dimly know it, but raised to an infinite degree. For, we are told, "God is Love."
Jim Atwell is a member of the Quaker community, and a columnist for The Cooperstown Crier, which The Daily Star publishes weekly.
Columns
Scrubbing the boards and hull
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
-
-
My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
Ask any hospital administrators if they've ever heard of a closed hospital in New York state that has ever been re-opened. They will say, "Impossible." In a half century of going through records you can't find any.
Continued ... - Catching a whiff of 'Vermont Vapor'
- Selections from the virtual mailbag
- Recalling days of 'Doughnut King'
- Opera great's visit still a thrilling memory
-
My pal Brucie, savior of Sidney's hospital
- Cary Brunswick
-
-
We've become our own worst enemies
The past month has been marked by a seeming unprecedented number of man-made tragedies, as distinct from those caused by violent outbursts of the natural world, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
Continued ... - Plenty of blame to go around for Bangladesh horror
- Obama is going against his word on Social Security
- Reflecting on a Florida trip
- Those magnificent spies in their flying machines
-
We've become our own worst enemies
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
-
-
Records seizure is an insult to free press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
Continued ... - The evangelical view of same-sex marriage
- Manor's fate will be Otsego board's legacy
- A closer look at our economy - Part II
- Use fracking to fill budget gaps
-
Records seizure is an insult to free press
- Lisa Miller
-
-
A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
Continued ... - Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
-
- Mark Simonson
-
-
General Clinton Canoe Regatta got a new home in 1972
Ever since 1963, when Charles Hinkley and a group of Tri-Town businessmen came up with the idea for what we know today as the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, people lined the shores of the Susquehanna to watch the canoeists as they made their 70-mile trek from Cooperstown to Bainbridge.
Continued ... - Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
- Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
- Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
- Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
-
- Rick Brockway
-
-
Kids have sparkle in their eyes
When I was in my teens, old Bill Naatz told me about a stream north of Lake George where a man had panned out enough gold to make his wife a wedding band. It was all rumors, but to his grandson and myself, it sounded like the makings of a great adventure.
- People make the outdoors even better
- Turkey season has ups and downs
- Spring air isn't always the freshest
- Adriondacks keep growing and growing
-
Kids have sparkle in their eyes
- Sam Pollak
- William Masters
-
-
Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
As the time to vote draws near, we need to remember how money can run politics more than we can. Raising funds is a prominent (if not the dominant) task of getting elected. Raising issues is also crucial, but those efforts are subject to distortion and fear-mongering.
- Republicans feelentitled to allthey can garner An entitlement is a legal benefit available from the government to individuals who are within a defined category of recipients, such as needing insurance for unemployment or health services.
-
Romney focuses on self; Obama emphasizes unity
Mitt Romney criticizes President Obama for saying a person's success is rooted in his community, and is not all his alone. Romney belittles this with his belief in individual initiative. He is better at the put-down than the push-up.
-
Romney shows little regard for common man
The Republicans in Congress have voted over and over, 33 times, redundantly and uselessly, to rescind what they call Obamacare.
-
Scouts' gay ban creates problem where none exists
The Boy Scouts of America's "emphatic reaffirmation" of its vow to exclude any and all homosexuals from its hallowed ranks is ill-considered and pathetic, especially in view of its having reviewed the matter for two years.
-
Schreibman tops Chris Gibson on women's issues
