We really don’t think twice about using them or even getting one when we can’t find the old trusted one – I’m talking about umbrellas, of course. But when Jonas Hanwa who had just returned from France used an umbrella, people were outraged. God made the rain. Why would you protect yourself from it? Also, there was a touch of xenophobia: How dare one bring something so French into England!
Although Hanway championed that instrument which we consider to be so very English, he, too, had a touch of xenophobia in his opposition to the introduction of tea. So now we have two things that we consider English having been originally considered foreign.
We may ask, what’s the importance of such little quirky bits of history? They show us we should not reject things out of hand because they may seem strange, different, or even foreign. Things now a part of our lives, such as umbrellas and tea, were once considered unacceptable, even contrary to God’s law.
Prayer for the Day
You created us as sentient beings with minds to use, O God,
May we open them to the new and unfamiliar;
You created us to be inquisitive and searching, O Lord,
May we not reject out of hand new ways of serving you.
Grant us the ability to examine the old and traditional,
And to move beyond them when necessary.
In the name of the One who teaches us new ways to live,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
Helen Keller, disability rights activist (1880-1968)
Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts his life to one whole only.
Plautus, Roman playwright (254-184 BCE)
Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert,
To give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself,
So that they may declare my praise.
Isaiah 43: 18-21