Anne Carson, definitely not re-retired
The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
John 3: 8-10 NRSVue
1 I feel the winds of God today;
today my sail I lift,
though heavy oft with drenching spray
and torn with many a rift;
if hope but light the water's crest,
and Christ my bark will use,
I'll seek the seas at his behest,
and brave another cruise.
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I like to think I'm moderately aware of the arts and culture scene in Canada, although as I age I'm being left behind. So, I was chastened when I heard the news that a Canadian poet and essayist, Anne Carson, has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. My initial response was "who dat?" Carson was born in Toronto and attended the U of T. Through the decades she has received many awards and is a member of the Order of Canada. Am I embarrassed that she wasn't on my radar at all? Yup.
Carson has citizenship in Canada and Iceland and lives in the latter country for part of the year. I loved that she was reached by the Nobel Prize chair as she sat outside near Reykjavik, "listening to the wind." I have a lot of time for those who listen to the wind and ramble in the wind. Iceland is an island in the north Atlantic and it seems to exist between moderately windy and very windy.
Cover illustration by Anne Carson
We loved our time in Iceland in September a few years ago and every single day we were buffeted by the wind. We drove hither and yon, including to the far west of a peninsula. We ventured along a dirt road off the highway to reach the sea and were puzzled by what appeared to be a low white wall ahead of us. It turned out to be a line of sea foam at least a metre high piled up on the beach by wind and waves. We managed to find a path through and the experience as we walked, all alone, was mystical.
We spend time on two islands on the northeast coast of Newfoundland most years. Our elderly friend and neighbour as well as her family are bemused by our choice to walk shoreline trails on the windiest days, at times barely able to stand against the onslaught. One year the wind came up so intensely while we were out that the trail had flooded in a low spot by the time we returned and we did get wet feet. Ruth posts photos of our windy rambles on Instagram and they tend to be well liked, even if some who do so might not want the actual experience. We also visit the nearly 150-year-old wooden Anglican place of worship on windy days. It literally "creaks like a church in a high wind." I feel that the Spirit of God is present in those moments. outdoor and indoor.
In Hebrew "ruach" means spirit, and wind, and breath, which is perfect, don't you figure? So there is the ruach of Creation, and the prophet Elijah's profound mountainside experience, and Jesus confounding Nicodemus with his windy nocturnal talk.
Okay, before I'm blown off course any more I'll stop. Congratulations to Anne Carson and may the wind continue to fill her sails for years to come.
He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
1 Kings 19: 11-12 NRSVue
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
blow thro' the wilderness calling and free,
Spirit, Spirit of restlessness,
stir me from placidness,
Wind, Wind on the sea.
1 You moved on the waters, you called to the deep,
then you coaxed up the mountains from the
valleys of sleep;
and over the eons you called to each thing:
wake from your slumbers and rise on your wings. R
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