Ignorance, Change, and the Passing of Time

Yesterday we visited Lincoln Castle. A knowledgeable guide pointed out important features of the castle and told us something of its history. Kings – William, Henry, Stephen, Richard, John… wars against the French, battles for power… the details and popularity of public executions…

We saw one of the few remaining copies of the Magna Carta, learning about its history, purpose, contents, importance. We walked around the jail learning about Victorian crime and punishment.

I became deeply aware of my ignorance of so much English history.

I’m half way through Richard Cole’s ‘A Death in the Parish’ so I’m ignorant regarding who committed the murder. Yesterday I read:

‘All things are in a state of flux, he thought, panta chorei – Heraclitus, remembered from his first philosophy lectures…’

I hadn’t a clue what he was on about. Mr Google helped me. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus talked about the process of constant change; ‘panta chorei’ means ‘everything flows’. It’s the picture of a river. Everything’s moving; nothing stays the same…

…So in a world where there’s so much I don’t know… even those things that I think I know are changing.

I recall the verse from ’O God our help in ages past’, the old Isaac Watts hymn that describes life’s changing nature.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

The hymn’s concluding sixth verse contains reassuring words about an unchanging God in a changing world, of which I’m largely ignorant.

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

Checking the hymn I discovered that Watt’s original hymn had nine verses. One I’ve never seen before:

Like flowery fields the nations stand
Pleased with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower’s hand
Lie withering ere ‘tis night.

And somehow my ignorance, life’s constant changes, time’s passing and an unchanging God becomes clearer by the picture painted by this old verse.