A healing experience that gives me hope for the future
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: By the Rev John Nugent of Wick St Fergus Church
I am writing this piece in the lounge of the Pierowall Hotel on the “Queen o’ the Isles,” otherwise known as Westray.
Westray is also an island under lockdown. Like Wick, on Westray everybody knows everybody else.
Now I haven’t been on Westray for about seven years but it is as if I have never been away. I went into Rendall’s Stores a couple of days ago and someone came up to me and asked me: “Aye John beuy, whar hest thoo been hideen theeself?” Translated, this means: "John, I haven’t seen you for a peedie while."
I even found myself lapsing into Westray dialect at times.
One thing I was pleased to see still going on is that everybody waves, whether they know one another or not.
For me it has been a healing experience being here in my old stomping ground. Seeing the old ways still being practised, talking nonsense simply for the pleasure of enjoying someone’s company, and being recognised by people I haven’t seen in years – it has been great. It gives me hope for the future.
You see, these are things that Covid-19 and post-modern life cannot tear from us. These are the things that should be the new, the true “normal”. We are relearning these things in our society. That they have been largely lost is a cause of regret. That they are being revived is a cause of joy and hope. These are the things we have to focus our minds on.
It is also thoroughly biblical. The prophet wrote: “There shall be no poverty among you.”
This only happens where corporate responsibility for one another is fostered in a society over toxic individuality and the profit motive. This is a set of values to be embraced rather than dismissed.