Islanders

"Every man is an island. And I stand by that. But clearly, some men are part of island chains. Below the surface of the ocean they are actually connected." - Will (Hugh Grant) About a Boy

My friend's tea cup collection

I have fond memories of the words of Thomas Merton. My friend and I used to venture down to the end of Ocean Street, to where the sidewalk ends, and read or journal on the concrete wall overlooking the waves.  I passed along No Man is an Island to her, having found passages in it inspiring at that point in my early/mid twenties; we would read our favorite ones aloud.  These months of ocean-bonding were precious, as we spent many afternoons by the water either reading by it, eating by it, drinking by it or jumping into it as the days became unbearably unbearable that summer.

In About a Boy, a self-absorbed Hugh Grant tried to hang on to his island mentality yelling, "I am island!  I'm bloody Ibiza!". His philosophy is sabotaged by the friendship between him and a boy who followed him around, seen by his reluctant concession that our islands are "actually connected". Recently, I came across an article touching on Merton's beliefs, noting that he believed in the "promise of paradox".  The author, Parker J. Palmer, talks about paradoxical thinking as...

"...the key to creativity, which comes from the capacity to entertain apparently contradictory ideas in a way that stretches the mind and opens the heart to something new. Paradox is also a way of being that's key to wholeness, which does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life."

Perhaps we have two hands, two eyes and two feet to hold, see and move towards these paradoxes - constantly seeing double and living in that tension.  Like the tea cups above, we are beautiful holders but also breakable - prone to dust and cracks. I have found that one of the most challenging things, is the delicate balance of our own strength and vulnerability - protection and risk, safety and challenge... the extremes are always there.  Wholeness is not perfection, but in fact two broken people sitting on a shore trying their best to live in this crazy wilderness.