St. Andrew's Day

Today is St. Andrew's Day. Or, more particularly, the National Day of Scotland. How did St. Andrew come to be linked with Scotland I hear you ask? Wikipedia knows:

About the middle of the tenth century, Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland. Several legends state that the relics of Andrew were brought under supernatural guidance from Constantinople to the place where the modern town of St. Andrews stands today (Pictish, Muckross; Gaelic, Cill Rìmhinn).

The Saltire (or "St. Andrew's Cross") is the national flag of Scotland.

The oldest surviving manuscripts linking St. Andrew to Scotland are two: one is among the manuscripts collected by Jean-Baptiste Colbert and willed to Louis XIV, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the other is the Harleian Mss in the British Library, London. They state that the relics of Andrew were brought by one Regulus to the Pictish king Óengus mac Fergusa (729–761). The only historical Regulus (Riagail or Rule) — the name is preserved by the tower of St. Rule — was an Irish monk expelled from Ireland with Saint Columba.

There are good reasons for supposing that the relics were originally in the collection of Acca, bishop of Hexham, who took them into Pictish country when he was driven from Hexham (c. 732), and founded a see, not, according to tradition, in Galloway, but on the site of St. Andrews.

Another legend says that in the late eighth century, during a joint battle with the English, King Ungus (either the Óengus mac Fergusa mentioned previously or Óengus II of the Picts (820–834)) saw a cloud shaped like a saltire, and declared Andrew was watching over them, and if they won by his grace, then he would be their patron saint. However, there is evidence Andrew was venerated in Scotland before this.

Andrew's connection with Scotland may have been reinforced following the Synod of Whitby, when the Celtic Church felt that Columba had been "outranked" by Peter and that Peter's older brother would make a higher ranking patron. The 1320 Declaration of Arbroath cites Scotland's conversion to Christianity by Saint Andrew, "the first to be an Apostle".

Of all these stories, the most likely is the St. Columba version. As you are all no doubt aware, I have spent some considerable time both at Iona and researching its links to St. Andrew. Modestly, I can say that I am Hamilton's foremost authority on St. Andrew's links to Iona.

I have never told this story to anyone, but it seems fitting to share it now. When last on Iona, I was admiring the lovely scenery on the western shore while Beth was practicing her best person speech. As I moved further away, I began to pick up flat stones to skip across the water. As I tripped over a branch, skinned my knee and was angrily shaking my fist at the ground, I noticed a strange shape resting there. As I approached, it appeared to be metallic. I picked it up and it was indeed rusted metal in the shape of a cross. The front had designs carved into it, the back had one word - Aindreas - Gaelic for Andrew.

When Beth and I were last in London, I took the cross to be carbon dated at the British Museum. It takes approximately six weeks for the results to come back. They came back today - the cross was manufactured between 560 and 600 AD. These dates coincide nicely with the life of ... you guessed it ... St. Columba. You can see the cross now on display in Room 22 of the British Museum in the same room as those Sutton Hoo thingys.

The End-ish

We started this blog - I know, I checked - so that we could remain in contact with those of you who will be missed by us. I think the blog did a good job. Along with Facebook and Flickr we were able to let you know about us as well as hear about you. Of course, it's not the same as being in the same country, but we did what we could.

This blog has also just had its 100th post. This will be the 102nd. Although there were long stretches where we didn't update the blog as much as we wanted, we feel pretty good about the 100+ posts we were able to make.

As most of you will know, we are heading home very soon to take up new jobs and start new things. We'll live at Brent's parent's house for a few days and then move all our stuff back to the townhouse. It will be our fourth move in 16 months. That's too many. We'll start shopping to replace some of the things lost in the move and set up house. We'll go shopping in a well-stocked grocery store, buy a car and a Christmas tree. These weekly, annual or less frequent events may seem pedestrian to some, but we missed out on them for quite some time.

It will probably only take a few weeks to be fully back in the swing of Canadian things. It will be nice to be in Canada for reasons other than job interviews. Certain friends who will remain nameless have kindly provided a reacclimatization course for us. We are looking forward to seeing our family and friends in a non-jet-lagged state and starting a new life in our old country.

We don't know what will happen to the blog. It appears to have served its purpose and we will likely just stop posting one day. We will certainly print out our 100+ posts and keep it as a memento of our time here.

We have been asking ourselves whether it was worth it to come here. There is no doubt that it was and we would recommend it to anyone. The new directions in our jobs have everything to do with our trip here and if we had it to do all over again, we surely would. Our lives needed some shaking up and we shook them for all we were worth. It wasn't easy, but it has gotten us (or hopefully will get us) to where we want to be. The future is brighter now than it was when we left and the excitement this has brought to our lives is invaluable.

We left a life which was too busy, chaotic, crazy, stressful and maddening for us. England has shown us a different way to live life and we hope to bring parts of this life home with us. The choices we have made in going home and starting a new life have reflected our desire not to take up with the old ways.

A recent Toronto Life article discussed the problems that lawyers now have with their busy and stressful lives. One lawyer lamented the fact that, although he was surmounting the hurdles placed in front of him and succeeding (articling, junior associate, senior associate, junior partner, etc.) he had very little outside of his job to show for his life. In his words, he was working too hard and had nothing in his photo album.

I'm glad I'm not him and hope I never will be.

The Odyssey

It has been hard over the time that we have lived in England to articulate how we feel about the experience. Some people have the impression that we do not like it here. Some people have the impression that we have the perfect life with never ending vacations and fabulous job opportunities. What we have found is that it is not that simple. It is not black and white. It is true that on paper England has some pretty good things going for it. Both of us have excellent jobs which we have really enjoyed. At the same time there are things about life in England that drive us crazy and that are the source of many jokes. Our decision about how long to live here – to stay or to go cannot be made solely on factors such as this. The best way to describe how we’ve decided where we want to be is our search for balance and wholeness. We want to be in the place where we can have the most balance in our lives and where we feel whole.

In Canada, we have wonderful family and friends, but potentially crazy jobs typical of the Southern Ontario rat race, which can be draining and stressful. In England, we have wonderful jobs, but no family and only acquaintances, not old friends. In a perfect world we would transport our English jobs to Canada and life would be dreamy. But, in reality, this is not possible.

We feel that life in Canada gives us the greatest chance for feeling like we have lives full of that which is most important to us. Yes, we are giving up some promising opportunities, but life far from home does tend to make you examine your priorities differently and we feel this is still a wise choice. So, for all those who think we are down on England or too negative about our experience here, it is not that we dislike life in old Blighty, it is that we are seeking wholeness.

Beth’s metaphor for this comes from the computer game Sim City. The bar graph that tells you the growth of the residential, commercial and industrial sectors in your city need to be in balance for the city to survive. In England, the bar graph shows the industrial sector thriving, but the residential and commercial sectors barely above 0.

Brent’s metaphor for this search for balance comes from his grandparents’ old house. When he was a kid, his grandfather would shut off certain rooms in the house to save on heating costs in the winter. In England, we’ve sort of had to shut off the rooms where our families and old friends live for however long the winter of our trip to England lasts.

So our search for balance and wholeness finds us on the brink of another transition as we prepare to uproot our lives in England and return to Hamilton.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved heaven and earth, that which we are, we are;
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.