Sunday 23 June 2013

gems amidst the void



"There is a human loneliness that stems from another source than a lack of companionship... it is a supernatural defect, which can only be remedied by grace". Roger Scruton.

I finally got hold of the harrowing yet astonishing film, To End All Wars this weekend - the true story of a Japanese  P O W camp of principally British soldiers forced to build a railway through the grueling cruelty of their captors in the Burmese jungle in the 1940's. Amidst some sterling performances here, we begin to discover that beneath our shocking capacity for selfish evil and inhumanity lies something we all require at our very core - to know a truth which makes us other than what we so naturally de-fault to when the veneer is gone. Even in the utter desolation of such a reality, we begin to discover what truly matters - the power of a mercy beyond us, and the manner in which that mercy alone infuses life, even in such squalor, with meaning, value and purpose.

The film reminded me just how hard it can be in our current world to hear and encounter what truly matters, especially in our own relationship to everyday life. Take what is closest to us - our own bodies, for example. We usually wrap most of our skin and nerves in layers for much of our lives, so, aside perhaps from a morning shower or an evening soak, most of us never allow ourselves to really immerse our bodies in the natural world - walk barefoot through a natural wood, or better yet, "air bathe" our bodies by spending some moments naked in such natural surroundings. Everything today is given filtered or packaged, even our recreation. In a world, however, where all such comforts are gone and all that is left is our bodily selves, to end all wars spoke of how a richer, deeper communion, undimmed by squalor and suffering, is what truly makes us precious and thereby where we ultimately discover treasure amidst earthen vessels.



What is true of life is equally true in art. We are surrounded by, drowning in, images today which leave us desolate, for not only, however 'real' or graphic their content, do they contain nothing (the soul of the subject and often the 'artist' is absent), but their only aim is to deaden our souls as well  - to engender an engagement where the result is empty and pointless beyond the immediate.

Great art marries heaven and earth, soul and grace, reality and hope.

Ours is a time which often negates such ease and freedom and desecrates the vital beauty of a person by making them less than they should be, thus the body itself becomes no more than a device, a means for gratifying our superficial approach to one another, rather than valuing, pursuing, something richer and deeper in our lives and in our society.



The lack of such yearning - for a return to innocence - is no doubt why our world currently seems so 'windowless' when it comes encountering God. The defacing of love itself, especially eros, dislocates us from the allure and call to a stillness and poignancy where such an enchantment may whisper deeply to us all.

Life, be it through crushing hardship or astonishing, unnatural joy, longs for us to be so tutored, but we so quickly choose, whenever possible, to run and escape the call of these theaters and block their intrusion with the clutter and noise of modernity.

May the author and maker of all that has lasting value continue to be merciful to us, and ignore such folly, and make us people who are fully alive - children, entirely, of His grace.

Images: Balance. Model:Katy. Poise. Model: Magenta. From Above. Model: Magenta.
All images created and owned by Howard Nowlan. Unison Photo Arts.