AS I SEE IT
By Rev. Jim Innes
A FUN COMMERCIAL...
In a London pub, three people take their first sips of Guinness as "The Rhythm of Life" by Sammy Davis Jr. plays in the background. The scene shifts into a mesmerizing backward-in-time sequence as the trio appears to move from the bar and out into the street in reverse. Their clothes changed from modern-day London to the Edwardian period, the early 1900s, and the street features changed from electric lights to gas lamps. Buildings disappear frame by frame, reverting the city into a small Anglo-Saxon settlement and making it disappear completely.
Their backward journey continues through dense woodland, and their clothing and hairstyles regress to styles from the Bronze Age. The sequence then depicts a close-up of the characters transforming into Neanderthals, followed by a freeze in an ice-age glacier.
Emerging from the glacier as primitive humans, they continued to walk backward with a more monkey-like gait and soon turned into chimpanzees. From there, they quickly regressed into several species, finally becoming mudskipper fish that could breathe on land and in water.
The next-to-final scene shows one of the fishes expressing distaste for the muddy taste as they sip water from a murky puddle. The commercial ends with a product shot of three pints of Guinness accompanied by the slogan, "Good things come to those who wait.”
We can only hope all our murky water turns into the smooth richness of a well-poured Guinness. Who knows what life will evolve into?
Who knows, indeed! If only the moments we suffer came attached to the future moment when we no longer agonize. Patience then would be so much easier.
When faced with challenging moments, such as a devastating s-storm or a period of depressing boredom, patiently waiting it out is easier when we believe that life is ultimately kind to us. However, such optimism is difficult to attain.
As I see it, this hard-to-attain optimism can result from trust breaches occurring quite early in life. As babies, we are a bundle of nerves and needs, and if we are distressed or traumatized, we begin to build a dark narrative about a ‘bad’ world we must survive. Even if we start with a sense of trust, subsequent experiences can severely damage that trust, leading us to believe that the world is hostile.
Though it is common for people to move from a dark narrative to a much brighter one, people who have survived trauma or experienced ongoing disappointments can sometimes become stuck in a cycle of negativity. This can lead to defensive or impatient behaviour and a pessimistic outlook, which only exacerbates their challenges. As a result, they may find themselves at odds with others and view the world as an adversary.
Patience is resilience, and it is born from an optimistic hopefulness. It has developed for me through my faith in a loving God who has a "good" plan for my life. Some people find resilient patience by drawing strength from their community or supportive relationships during challenging times. Others have naturally possessed resilient patience since a young age due to being surrounded by affirming individuals in ‘bad ‘times and in ‘good.’
It's important to break free from negative cycles and embrace a brighter narrative. Inevitably life will have us sipping murky waters, but let us hold a hope that ‘good’ things come to those who wait, like a well-poured Guinness.
Rev. Jim Innes is the rector of St. John's, Grand Bend with St. Anne's, Port Franks.