My Little Gnudren,Old Gnu realises that most of you are in your 50s and 60s. Old Gnu is going to be nearer a 100 this year than he has ever been before. So he reflects on the process of leaving go and getting off. It is important to know when to do it these things. If you are hanging from a broken bridge over a precipitous gorge with alligators swimming in the river below, it is important not to leave go.
Likewise if you are a little Dutch boy with your finger stuck in a hole in a dyke to stop water flooding out and drowning everyone, it’s important not to leave go.
And your heroism will be rewarded by the saving of many lives and having a waterproof paint named after you. But you may never be able to play the piano again.
The little Dutch Boy was one of the stories of heroism that made a very deep impression on Old Gnu when he was at primary school in the 1950s. As a result he went round looking for holes he could he could heroically stick his finger in. [Dear readers you should never finish a sentence with a preposition]. But alas, not many holes were readily available; and the ones he thought worthy candidates only got him into big trouble. It was at this early age that Old Gnu learnt that some pieces of information were best let go of. (Oh no! Not another preposition!)
And is it not true that we Gnus and human beings like to hang on to roles, because it gives us identity? Village parish councils throughout the country and government at every level, and the church have their fair share of people who just will not hand over and leave go. Our personal identities are are so bound up with having a role that our judgments and decisions are not impartial but warped. Woe! Kyrie Eleison! (Yes, Old Gnu is swearing in greek again.)
Ursula K. Le Guin wrote a series of children’s’ books, supposedly – The Wizard of Earthsea and 4 others in sequence. But contained within their pages they have timeless “truths” about how life is best handled, for the young and old who read them.
In book 3 of the series – The Farthest Shore – Ged, the Great Archmage comes home after a tumultuous and significant conquest on behalf of the people. After a magnificent public life, he lands back home on the back of a dragon. He gets off and walks home to grow vegetables, completely out of the limelight, and to find fulfilment in the simplest things in life. But beware! There is difference between growing vegetables and unnecessarily growing into a vegetable. Fortunately these novels have, like the Bible, been translated into many languages. And finally 3 other people you may have heard of. First, Vladimir Ashkenazy:
Old Gnu was at his first appearances in the UK on the concert platform in the 1960s. In June 2013 Gramophone Magazine wrote of him:
“It is rare to find, in the same artist, the very highest levels of musical talent living alongside the deepest genuine humility. None has that rare combination in higher degree than Vladimir Ashkenazy”.
His international career as a concert pianist, and latterly also as a conductor, spanned 7 decades. But in January 2020 his artist manager, Jasper Parrott, announced that Ashkenazy had decided to retire with immediate effect. No farewell concert, or time for adulation. Married to Thorunn for 60 years, he now lives in Switzerland. A man who knew when it was time to get off and leave go, despite being in full flow of his musical powers and a diary full of concert engagements that others will have to step into.
Some of us may be afraid to let go of roles we occupy for fear there will be nothing to do and we will have nothing to live for. Well, we are all different. But a word from Czeslaw Milosz (a Nobel Laureate), from his poem “Late Ripeness”:
Not too soon, as late as the approach of my ninetieth year
I felt a door opening in me and I entered
the clarity of morning.
Yes being very religious, Old Gnu believes that the Almighty can open new door to us in our latter years, if we leave go of the things we think we can’t live without. And the third person you may have heard of is a man called Jesus. He knew when it was time not to leave go, and when it definitely was time to leave go. Listen to the lyrics to one of the tracks that Old Gnu threw together (Jesus took the Bread) :
Lord you know their plans, they tie your hands.
You do not lift a finger.
God’s will must be done, they think they’ve won,
But master you are victor.
You laid down your life, took it up again;
now all power is yours, on Earth, in heaven.
Remember, my little Gnudren: when the time comes, Leave Go! Buzz orff! And don’t be a pain in the backside! Grow some vegetables, say your prayers, feed the birds, and be nice to everyone in the playground.
Vetus Pater Gnu
Academiae Musicorum et Theologia
Turris LA
IX Mensis Aprilis MMXXI