Lesson from a Pen

Some months ago I was in our local library totally engrossed in a book, when the author hit upon a point I just needed to record somewhere. No pen!  Looking beside me I noticed I was in company of a young lady fully dressed in ‘modest clothes’ including hijab. Sensing English would be no problem for this young lady, also aware that most kids do not carry pens these days because it’s all laptops or ipads or devices, I asked her anyway. “Excuse me, would you have a pen I might borrow? I need to make note of something.” There was a shy smile, a dig into her purse, and in short order I was hard at work with pen and paper. She had what I needed. When my note-writing was done I elected not to disturb her, merely positioned pen close to her for obvious easy retrieval whenever, and I continued reading. Half an hour later (approximately) she was gone, pen still exactly where I had put it! Well, dear old thinker kicks in. This was not exactly a cheap pen. Should I chase her down somewhere perhaps among the library stacks to try to return the pen … or maybe just keep it? 😏 I chose the latter. This young lady had probably left the pen as a gift for this old man!

A deliberate gift? I am reminded of a recent incident on similar topic. One of our neighborhood shop owners provided free repair service for a vacuum cleaner which had been donated to a refugee family which my wife and I were involved with. He chose on the spot to add his charity to what he recognized as our charity. Takat is an occasion of charity which must not be passed up, as he explained to us. It is the third pillar in Islam and he ‘must do it’ if he wants to enter heaven! We now have some extra appreciation for one another as neighbors in this our community of Midnapore. I decided the young lady with the pen was probably on same page as our shopkeeper neighbor. I was a Takat recipient!

This is happening precisely as my retirement contains a considerable amount of involvement with immigrants, South Sudanese, Syrians, Ukrainians and others entering into our urban neighborhoods. Even as we try to discern good ways to facilitate hospitality for newcomers to our communities, I cannot but observe a caution which characterizes us Christians. We screen immigrants, we evaluate church programs and budgets almost like we evaluate politicians and our tax dollars. They are scrutinized against our personal comfort, making sure we do not waste money on bad causes. Fundraising has become the work of professionals, with financial advisors and stewardship consultants to help us not squander our wealth, still looking to retain as much as possible for - who knows what? This morning’s Bible reading was about the guy storing up treasures, and then at the end of his days, God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ (Luke 12:20). Nothing new here, even for those who hardly ever read their Bible.

Stewardship is important for all of us hard-working faithful folk, and slowly I am learning that it's more than what each of us do with total assets or profiles, or whatever it is we call our money. Both the Quran and the Bible point to the importance of the ‘collection’ being not for patronage, but more akin to tithing. Patronage maintains the power and prestige of the patron through public giving of gifts, granting prestige (often advertised as sponsors) to the patron and of course material assistance to the other. Tithing, on other hand, is more a matter of redistribution of that which belongs to Allah – God. "Ay, there is the rub", as Shakespeare said once upon a time. This vantage requires neighborly thinking, private interests deferred to community.

I have now finished reading that book which required the note-taking - done reading but the contents not forgotten! [i] Fascinating, creative and oh so well written, this lifestyle/environment/stewardship topic is larger yet than I had it figured until now! The book is about Indigenous wisdom, Scientific knowledge, and the teachings of Plants. Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author, is a mother, scientist, university professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, New York State. Her book does not posit Christian or Indigenous or Muslim religious theology, but actually engages all of these and posits all of us on this Mother Earth needing to observe giant cedars and strawberries and animals as our oldest teachers. We, us human beings, have a reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. The great disaster, according to her, is that we have forgotten to listen to our teachers and the consequences are now all around us. She has left me with a big big big topic, quite akin to the Luke 12 passage quoted above.[ii] The things we have gathered or accomplished, whose will they be?

Even as Dr. Kimmerer leaves me with her prophetic discomfort there is also an undeniable winsomeness in her tone which is easy and hope-filled. She writes like a plain old fashioned mother, my mother even! Mom always had a living room full of potted plants. In her last several years she would sit in her living room chair, with flowers and greenery that breathed life and pleasure for any of us who might want to come and sit a while. And it was also an 'unofficial fact' which my siblings and I whispered about, mom listened to and she spoke with her plants!

I cannot but smile, still thinking of the young Muslim lady in the library who left her pen on my table. It's nice to think she was probably committed to the Takat picture which included my convenience rather than merely her own.

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[i] Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013).

[ii] And also akin to another read on similar topic, Steven Charleston, The Four Vision Quests of Jesus (New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2015).