Post 26/2023 Friday 14 July . . . I’ll take the risk of sharing a personal experience while it’s fresh–as well as reference a thought that rolls back the years. A dream Tuesday morning had me involved in a delightfully animated conversation in a circle of recent acquaintances. We had just returned to the US from a theatre performance in London. Dream, not reality.

The conversation revolved around a well-known actor whom we had briefly met. The speaker on the other side of the room said she had had a one-to-one interview with the actress in question. As I said, the exchange was animated.

The next thing I knew I woke up on the floor. I had fallen out of bed–6:30am. No harm done, or so I thought. My left toe felt a bit sore, but I had to laugh at the predicament that landed me on the floor and puzzle about its cause.

Examination, X-ray, results–my toe was broken. So, I’m wearing a special boot, keeping my foot generally elevated, doing normal stuff around the house. But also driving eight hours to Ontario for a wedding reception and visit with extended family and friends. Sadly, we learned that my cousin, Ralph, who had been in failing health and had just started hospice care, died the day before we arrived.

Marty woke up too. No use trying to get back to sleep. We went for a walk but cut it short since my toe still felt a bit strange. At mid-morning I decided to go to Urgent Care. Going to the ER seemed a little too much.

Mysterious. Slightly painful. Falling out of bed, at once hilarious and embarrassing. Now, confined for six weeks to an open-toe boot and use of a walking stick for distance walks. A bit awkward. Doable.

We had watched the last of the Doc Martin TV series 10, set in Port Isaac, Cornwall. The strangest, funniest, serious things happen in that series. I told Marty we could write a sequel to the shows (which have now concluded for good). Our experiences–even though an infinitesimal fraction of what happens in the Doc Martin series–are surprising, real, shuddery, painful, could-be-worse, a touch funny, mendable, probably with some silver lining.

Shakespeare to the rescue

I turn to William Shakespeare and his allusions to the Bible for a word of encouragement and enlightenment, if not sympathy.

Maisie Sparks created the book, Holy Shakespeare! 101 Scriptures that Appear in Shakespeare’s Plays, Poems, and Sonnets, (Faith Words, Hachette Book Group, 2016). I cite a few. The scriptural quotes are from the Geneva Bible with which Shakespeare would have been familiar.

61. purposeful pain: “Sweet are the uses of adversity, / Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, / Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;” As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1.

Psalms 11:71: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn thy statutes.”

86. the gift of life. “O Lord, that lends me life, / Lend me a heart repleate with thankfulnesse:” King Henry VI Part II, Scene I.

Job 10:13: “Thou hast given me life, and grace: and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.”

88. unimaginable goodness. From A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act IV, Scene 1: “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was.”

1 Corinthians 2:9-10: “But as it is written. The things which eye hath not seen, neither ear hath heard, neither came into man’s heart, are, which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

Be careful . . .

Applying a dream to life is pretty tricky business. The immediate circumstances probably factored into the picture, but I want to simply add a wish I had as a teenager. Back then I saw the special attention people got when they were severely ill or had to spend time in the hospital. What about me? What would it take for me to get similar attention?

Selfish, of course. Not fully valuing the real need people have related to hospital care. What if I needed an operation for an ingrown toenail? Would that tip the balance? So mind-numbing thinking. Shudder worthy. Embarrassing. Unreal.

So, I break my toe more than half a century later, am royally served by a walk-in clinic with follow-up coming in a week and a half, just glad for a few people to share the humor with me.

The story goes back to a conversation from the mid 1980s. My late doctor, George Mark, on a Sunday when I was worship leader and offered the pastoral prayer, told me he had felt included in the prayer along with those who were confined to home or hospital. The point, I may have learned as a teenager, is that we all need and benefit from prayers on our behalf.

I wish for everyone that you find a silver lining in those times when things take a turn for the unexpected. And not to be too surprised when the laugh is on and with you. Shakespeare: Break a leg.

The deep things of God be with Ralph’s wife Marjorie, family and extended family.

-John