OSCA
Chaplain
DEDICATED TO PRINCIPAL I TOM BATTY
THE MEANING OF LIFE : AN UPDATE
In 1972 Leonard Cohen sang Last Year ’ s Man , a song about Jesus . He sings : The corners of the blueprint are ruined since they rolled / far past the stems of thumbtacks that still throw shadows in the wood …
Was there ever really a blueprint ? I think yes . All my life I have known the Bible , and as a teenager I was introduced to its narrative coherence , despite the obvious diversity of documents written by multiple authors over a period of more than 1000 years . It all points to Jesus . I think Cohen wanted there to be a blueprint , too . But he came from a different and more difficult place .
‘ Good morning Graham ’, said Ken , cheerily , interrupting my thoughts as he arrived early for our coffee gathering . ‘ I ’ ve been meaning to ask you : what is the meaning of life ?’ As Monty Python flashed into my mind , Jim and Bob arrived . These ‘ retired ’ men are all part of a weekly conversational coffee time . Interrupted thus , I haven ’ t yet replied to Ken , who is Old Scotch , and about my age . What should I have said to him ? ‘ There is a blueprint ’? How might I go about it ?
Then there is Phil , now retired , who said he used to think there was meaning and purpose , but he ’ s no longer sure . His faith has taken a hit . Its familiar culprits : What about the illnesses of children ? Who could
sanction the violence and brutality in the texts ? Don ’ t we make our own meaning ?
Indeed , who should preside over the making of meaning ? This is the question posed in The Chair . It ’ s a comedy / drama , now among the ‘ most viewed ’ on Netflix , but neither too funny nor overly dramatic . It depicts how a dominantly white male faculty at Pembroke College responds to its first black female head , Dr Ji-Yoon Kim , played by Sandra Oh .
Charged as humanity faculties are with making meaning by interpreting texts , events , history , and peoples ’ lives , this humanities faculty is a caricature of the very notion . It presents ageing white men floundering in their aim of upholding the status quo : white male dominance over everything .
That ’ s the very pointy end . And a point close to the centre of innumerable conversations with our esteemed and alas , departing Principal . In the light of our shared Christian commitment at Scotch , we explored songs , poetry , drama , film and novels ; they peppered our many chats after chapel and post-assembly conversations . Tom : thank you for such sharing of yourself .
Meanwhile , in her sense-seeking review of The Chair , journalist , Clare Millar Colombo , in The Christian Century , writes : ‘ Standing dazed and disoriented in the crater of a collapsed paradigm , the academic humanities – the secular remnants of the Great Chain of Being – have struggled to maintain integrity . Without a metanarrative , what can disjointed human narratives possibly mean ? … Who should preside over the meaning making ?’
She suggests that a humanities faculty without metaphysics will swing between the nihilism and despair of a world without meaning ( think Waiting for … you know whom ) and the powerful egos asserting that meaning comes from the state ( left or right ), or whomsoever has a power that may challenge it .
Colombo rejects both of these trends and suggests there is a way by which a shared desire to belong can unite . She writes : ‘ The salvation that Pembroke waits for , miserably but with energy , is a new way to make meaning , one that is neither hierarchical , absurdist , nor totalitarian but rather grounded , relational , and true . One that is hopeful .’ To which we say ‘ Amen ’.
What could be more grounded , relational , true and hopeful than the way of Jesus ? He spoke to those primary concerns of the Hebrew Scriptures : love for God with love for neighbour , and he showed how costly stepping down to such servanthood could be . A kind of power inversion . Could an old , old story be awaiting uptake by a new generation , or even an old one ?
Cohen kept up his search for spiritual coherence . His final album , You Want It Darker ? became the subject of a YouTube clip by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks . On hearing of Cohen ’ s death in 2016 he issued a 10-minute YouTube clip from his New York City hotel room , calling it ‘ a song for our times ’.
He shows You want it Darker ? is deeply rooted in the Hebrew text of Genesis 22 where the Hebrew word hineni ( meaning ‘ here I am ’) is repeated three times . He points to Cohen ’ s use of this word as a lyric refrain . A touching and repeated offering of oneself : ‘ Here I am ’.
In his early song , Last Year ’ s Man , Leonard Cohen left the benediction to the female chorus . In a rising crescendo the women sing : But everything will happen if he only gives the word / the lovers will rise up , and the mountains touch the ground . It ’ s time for the lovers to rise up and say ‘ here I am ’.
For God ’ s sake , and for our neighbours ’
GRAHAM BRADBEER – OSCA CHAPLAIN
74 Great Scot Issue 165 – April 2022