A TALE OF CONVERSION OR PERHAPS OF RETURNI’ve loved this story for 65 years. I was in grade 5 at Blessed Sacrament School in London Ontario. My teacher for grades 5 to 8 was Sister Alice Marie. Each day right after lunch, she would read to us from a book that we would come to love like “Outlaws of Gravenhurst” or the Enid Blyton Mysteries. She didn’t care that we were far too old to be read to and we didn’t care either. In fact, it was my favourite time in the school day. And perhaps, hers, too.
As Christmas approached, she would read A Christmas Carol (Scrooge) to us and we were all wrapped in the spell she wove. Ever since, the Christmas Season has not really arrived until I’ve watched “A Christmas Carol” at least once. Last year, Sister Alice Marie died and I decided to honour her by going to the Grand Theatre to watch their production of this great classic. It was fabulous! I loved every minute of it. This year I just had to attend again and it was superb! And I had a new thought about it.
“Is this kind of profound conversion possible?” I thought about the human species and the profound damage we are doing to our home Planet and wondered if we could change. I believe we are a species in our teenage years, we have power but not enough wisdom.
Then I thought, in the story, Ebenezer, was not always mean and miserly. He had the love of his sister Fan and he loved his apprentice days with old Fezziwig where he fell in love with a co-worker, Belle(Alice). But then Fan died in childbirth. He began a different love affair with wealth and power and he lost Belle as she recognized she had been replaced.
We too, as a young species had profound connections with our earthly home. Some of that energy is still with us in the spirituality of Indigenous peoples as they try to uncover the relationships that the colonizers tried to extinguish. Yes I need to have hope. I have to have hope. I will live my life as if I have hope until it becomes a reality in me. Otherwise I will just become numb with a giant TV soother in my mouth. I will cease to live my one precious life.
I won't let the profound hopelessness of our times seep any deeper into the marrow of my being. I will believe that the human species can evolve to maturity and wisdom. I will invite the dreams of the earth, past, present and future to teach me. I will listen to the earth. I will align myself with the children who need a future full of hope, who need to see elders who believe in their possibilities.
I will start now as I take my morning walk into our glorious home.
Thanks Sister Alice Marie.
- Mary Margaret Howard (Gaiamma)