Roan Roamings

Roan Mountain Rhododendrons

I have recently been reading "Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy," a chilling yet enlightening biography of one of the 20th centuries most influential Christian figures, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The book, authored by Eric Metaxas, paints an alarming picture of how Adolf Hitler and his Nazism took hold in a largely Christian nation and spread like a cancer in Europe in the decades of the thirties and forties. Bonhoeffer played a critical role in alerting the world outside Germany of the impending doom before the point of no return was reached.

   

During the summer of 1934 there was a statement of opposition drawn up by a group of theologians and pastors of which Bonhoeffer was an influential member. That document became known as The Barmen Declaration.

During the lead up to the signing of this stark revelation, Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter to his grandmother about an experience he had on a field trip while in England. It is an experience in stark contrast to the dark nature of what was happening in his homeland. " I was greatly surprised to find wild rhododendrons in the woods, a whole lot of them, hundreds of bushes growing close together." This book passage immediately brought memories to this writer, memories which had been dormant for decades. They were the memories of a twelve year old boy.

In the summer of 1964 while at Camp Rockmont for Boys in Black Mountain, NC,  I was part of a small group invited to hike an 18 mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail.  We started in North Carolina and over the course of the next few days we found ourselves in Tennessee on one of the most beautiful places on this earth! As a boy who lived and grew up in south Florida the flora I was witnessing here atop Roan Mountain was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was stunning and I was awestruck. This piece of heaven on earth was my first encounter with rhododendron.  The pervasive color of purple I recall certainly delineates for me the presence of God I encountered in this special place. It was a both literal and spiritual mountaintop experience for a young boy who did not even know the meaning of those concepts.

The 12 year old boy still lives in this man and along with storied accounts of the Saints and Angels like Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds me that our Creator lives with us both in the spectacularly beautiful as well as the morosely dark places on this earth.

Amen Brother Bonhoeffer

Bradford Bosworth

January 2017

Tooth Fairy Innocense

None to Blame

Is it possible that in all the travails of our existent life no one is to blame?  It is just our human nature to stumble and fall, to become self centered and through our exclusion of other in our calculations we will hurt people along the way. Though in reality we can only hurt someone else if that person allows us to. Yes there are extremes of behavior that manifest physical violence and that is never acceptable except perhaps in instances of self defense.  In nearly all cases, when we hurt someone emotionally we have hurt ourselves first. Our culture and society draws the inference that if someone is hurt there is a guilty party and therefore someone to blame.  The minute we take victimization out of the equation there becomes no need to blame and find a guilty party.  This is called innocent acceptance, a childlike quality. The great Teacher talks about this place in the good news of Luke 18:16-17.

In these first few days of the new year, with a torrential and cold downpour it becomes a natural behavior to reflect upon the past and boy there is a great tendency to find a comfortable place in guilt and self loathing about all of the missed opportunities and failed relationships strewn in the wake of one's past. At least it is a default position for this writer anyway.  So I decided to open up some boxes  that have been taped shut for about five years and I found some objects that reached inside my heart and soul, wrenched and pried open a deep reservoir of emotional memories that spilled out as if an open artery. 

These objects were crafted by the hands of my two daughters. School art projects formed by the determined effort born of pure innocent acceptance of their assignments; free from self doubt that has no home in an innocent heart and mind of a child. As I studied these pieces of art, I noticed their names signed in their own hand on each and I wanted to hold them to my heart.  I wanted to retreat to my default position of feeling guilty for not being the best father I could to them. And I remembered that I  can only be the best father I can for them NOW.

Among the objects was a Tooth Fairy Box.  And I thought to myself that there could be no greater symbol of childlike innocence than this wonderfully beautiful gift of the new year!  I believe now my new year resolution will be to ask my good good Father daily for  increased childlike innocent acceptance. When I opened the box there were baby teeth of my children neatly wrapped inside, very innocently.   As I am firmly entrenched as a senior citizen now, I have learned we loose our teeth too!

Maybe I can get one of these boxes also and instead of finding money under my pillow in the morning, I might an additional measure of innocent acceptance. Father may it be  so.

Amen my beautiful girls.

Bradford Bosworth

January, 2017