Home Thoughts From Abroad

As the procession wound down, we headed off to do some exploring of the old city center and just around the corner we came across a lovely little Choco Museo. Here the chocolate is artisanal, and prepared right from the cacao bean. They had an impressive array of chocolate bars with fruits and spices, chocolate candies, truffles , cookies and nuts as well as chocolate jams, and chocolate liqueurs.

As all of these products were advertised as “unbelievably healthy and positive for your frame of mind”, and our feet were getting a bit tired; we took the opportunity to enjoy a cup of their famous cacao husk tea. It was to die for.

Cayman is a lovely place and the beaches are beautiful, however the street life is limited and what you do see tends to be artificial; set up for some event or other. In Peru, life happens on the streets and it made us so happy just to wander and enjoy the sights and sounds.

We loved watching the Peruvian people just going about their daily lives, dressed in their bright, colourful clothing and beautifully distinctive head wear.

We were tired but it was a beautiful evening when we got back to Miraflores so we decided to walk down to the beach and have tea at this lovely gazebo at the end of the peer.

Like many Latin American nations, Peru’s predominant religion is Roman Catholicism, which remains a powerful influence in both state affairs and daily activities. Church activities and personnel are centered in Lima, with its most important and impressive cathedral in the Plaza de Armas along with the National Palace and Lima’s Municipal Office. The institutional role of the church has slowly declined over the years but the ceremonial aspects of the Catholic religion, its moral convictions and cultural values remain deeply embedded in Peruvian culture.

We were up in good time on Easter morning and grabbed a cab to take us into the center of Lima to do a little sight-seeing and possibly catch a church service. Our timing was perfect and we arrived in the Plaza in time to witness the gathering of the faithful to celebrate the Risen Christ. All of the streets around the Plaza were decorated with incredibly beautiful murals made of flower petals.

We followed the sounds of music to a side street in time to witness the arrival of two  processionals coming from opposite directions, to converge at the 16th century Cathedral in the heart of old Lima Centro. Each group carried four figures of about ten feet in height, balanced on a platform on the shoulders of 14 to 16 men.  They were each accompanied by a marching band, incense burners and columns of worships and came to a halt every few minutes to allow the men to rest.

It was a spectacular sight to see and a joy to watch a community celebrate their faith with such fervency and adoration. We spent a happy morning around the plaza, sipping on cocao and chocolate tea and marveling in the architectural beauty of Lima.

Stephen Hawking passed away on March 14 of this year, a bright, shining star in the firmament of the brilliant. Like all truly intelligent scientists – Newton, Einstein, Darwin – Hawking left plenty of room for God in his thinking. Only the drooling Neanderthals of the intelligentsia, the Richard Dawkins and the Stephen Frys of this world who haven’t thought deeply about anything save breakfast are committed atheists. All those who are truly intelligent recognize the limits of scientific observation and theory and understand fully that beyond the ‘event horizons’ of the universe lies nothing but speculation.

Hawking certainly knew this, and at one pivotal moment in his landmark A Brief History of Time acknowledges that all of his speculation is merely an attempt to rationalize what is known about the universe into a coherent theory that is not dependent on the presence of God. He goes further. He acknowledges that the existence of God is a much better explanation for what is known and observed than anything he puts forward. Such intellectual open-mindedness is the hallmark of genius.

Hawking was equally frank about the dangers posed by the development of artificial intelligence or AI. He once remarked that, “Computers can, in theory, emulate human intelligence, and exceed it. Success in creating effective AI, could be the biggest event in the history of our civilization. Or the worst. We just don’t know. So we cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI, or ignored by it and side-lined, or conceivably destroyed by it.”

Hawking was himself the beneficiary of the intelligent machines he warned us about. Unable to speak for the last thirty years, Hawking was entirely dependent on machines to move or even speak. Nothing, however, was able to limit his capacity to think. He was the director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge at the time of his death and pushed the boundaries of what we know about the universe.

But perhaps his greatest gift to mankind was his indomitable spirit. Diagnosed with ALS at 21, Hawking was given two years to live. He lived another 55 and altered perceptions not only of the physical universe, but of the remarkable human capacity for endurance in the face of an overwhelming disability. He will be missed.

There is something about getting to forty years of marriage that has the quiet confidence of accomplishment. No, it doesn’t do away with the arguments and disagreements over the years, but it does put them in perspective. Marital arguments are immediate and intense. They are a psychological train wreck that leave both with bad feelings and thoughts about the other. One can’t help but ask, ‘Why are we still arguing about these things after all these years?’ But reaching forty years together takes the focus off the ‘arguing about these things’ and puts the emphasis on the ‘all these years.’ It happens so slowly and subtly. Each day is infinitesimally small, and the passage of the days just go incrementally by. Then you get to forty years and suddenly you recognize that together you have accomplished something remarkable.

As a Christian I know in my heart of hearts that this is not something we have done. We came into this marriage hurting and broken people, both of us. Everyone has baggage; the self-aware merely feel it more keenly. Without the other who knows what would have happened to us. In my case my own natal family is a salutary example of the person I might have become. Perhaps worse. On occasion I have felt that Pam has nagged me far more than I have been comfortable with and perhaps even on occasion far more than I deserved. However, she has been my moral compass far more often than she has been a stumbling block. When I consider where the Lord might be leading us, I always stop to consider how the Lord is speaking to her and it helps to guide my way.

But these are just the details, the individual trees in the forest of our relationship. That forest began as a small grove of shared experience that now encompasses forty years of our lives. The branches of these experiences intertwine through the lives of all those we have known and touched, and all those who have entered our lives over the years. These shared experiences enrich our lives and deepen the connections between us. We have done far more than endure; we have grown deeper and more connected to all we have known. We have learned the lessons of love.

The modern notion of living together until you are no longer interested in the other troubles me. Not because I am a judgmental prude. Far from it. Rather I have seen how a marital commitment – in the presence of God, family and friends – provides the shelter under which the frail shoots of a nascent love can become a forest of blessing and refuge in a word that is filled with rancor and strife. So many people misunderstand just how considerate and caring, how reassuring and comforting that marital commitment can be. For us, at forty years and counting, it has been an immeasurable blessing.

Here it is nearing the end of an incredibly busy summer and September is almost behind us. Our blog has suffered considerably due to the whirlwind of the past three months but over the next few days, we will attempt to capture what we missed. I returned from a week with Jon and Nicole and the kids in Orlando to complete the cleaning and packing for our move out of the condo that has been our home for the two years we have been in Grand Cayman. We loved that condo and will certainly miss it, but we will be able to keep a close eye on the scheduled renovations since we have moved next door.

We basically just dropped our belongings as the weekend had been set aside for the joy of seeing our dear young friend, Cherilyn marry the love of her life, Taylor. Cherilyn, the Grade 3 teacher at CIS arrive here at the same time as we did and has been an encouragement to us as well as others in our Community Group. Taylor’s move to the island was a slow process as he worked his way through the interviews and mounds of paperwork required to land a job and a work permit on this island. Everything came together for Taylor to move here in early June, with less than three weeks until their island wedding. With Taylor and Cherilyn safely here, the family began to arrive from various parts of North and South America.

It was a beautifully, God honouring ceremony, on an amazing day on a spectacular stretch of beach. Following the ceremony the guests loaded on to two boats for a forty five minute ride across the North Sound. The dinner at Rum Point was a scrumptious beach BBQ with gelato in place of a wedding cake. Local musicians provided the music for a very spirited dance and provided the back drop for the tributes and speeches. It was a wonderful celebration from beginning to end and it was a very joyful crowd that loaded up for the ride back across the Sound under the stars.

It was fun to have had a small part in the planning organizing of the day and Steve even had the joy of playing his guitar and singing some songs of love as the guests gathered on the beach. He had organized all of the sound equipment and for the processional and for the ceremony itself. It is a privilege and a joy to see this sweet young couple begin their journey together.