LIVING IN INTERESTING TIMES

 

“May you live in interestingly times!” has long purported to be a Chinese curse with the meaning of interesting as trouble, calamity, danger, uncertainly, chaos. While the Chinese origin of the saying seems plausible, it just is not so.

When I first investigated the saying more than a decade ago the evidence pointed me to a science fiction work the 1930s in which a character in the story says that phrase and explains that while many consider it a Chinese curse it was intended to be a blessing. In a recent investigation I could not find that reference, but I did find references to British government officials using the phase in the 1930s and in a 1943 article in Child Study: A Journal of Parent Education. The phrase did make it into science fiction when Eric Frank Russell writing as Duncan H. Munro used it in his 1950 story “U-Turn.” The famous use of the phrase came in 1966 when Robert Kennedy used a variation of it in his speech in Cape Town, South Africa. After that utterance the phrase became an integral part of the English lexicon.

All the wordsmiths I checked have concluded it is not Chinese. Although seemingly related to an authentic saying “It is better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic time”, Chinese scholars are reportedly puzzled by the phrase’s connection to a Chinese curse. It seems to them to be an American expression.

Whether of Chinese or American origin “May you live in interesting times!” does resonate with us in 2020, does it not? What about other interesting times? Jesus came to us in interesting times. Historian Paul Johnson explains, “The world into which Jesus was born was harsh, cruel, violent, and unstable. It was also materialistic and increasingly wealthy. The great fact of geopolitics was Rome and its possessions, in the process of transforming itself from a republic into an empire.” (Jesus: A Biography from a Believer) Then when the empire was crumbling, during the life of Saint Augustine, to the barbarian hordes, those were interesting times. More recently Christians living in the Southern Confederacy in the 1860s were living in interesting times as well as Christians and Jews living in Nazi Germany and its fiefdoms in the 1930s and 40s. But interesting times can be seemingly mundane eras of history. But like the character of a short story I read when younger who did not perceive the changes in his small town during a hot summer day we often miss the changes around us. Today’s mundane can morph into tomorrow’s chaos.

All these changes around us can lead us to desire to live in peaceful, simpler times we think we remember, you know, the good ole days. In the late 1960s while a college student I had an economics professor who had a dim view of the good ole days. One day in class he seemed delighted to share with us the disorder going back each decade to the beginning of the twentieth century. He then announced that contrary to popular opinion there have never been any good days.

So then we live in interesting times. Are we cursed or blessed? There is a story I heard many years about a trickster who loved to confound folks. One day he put a small bird in the palm of one hand and covered it with his other hand. Then he asked a young woman if the bird was dead or alive. If she said alive the trickster would crush the small bird with his two hands. If she said dead he would release the animal without harm. Either way he was to going to prove the young woman wrong. Her reply? “As you wish,” she wisely told the astonished has-been trickster. Cursed or blessed- as we wish.

Are we to despair of the pandemic and its aftermath? Are we to des[air of which candidates are victorious at the polls? We decide whether to live in faith or fear. Jesus was sent to a world of danger and cruelty yet He was faithful to God’s mission for Him- Jesus preached good news to the poor, proclaimed release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and set free the oppressed by proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19) Similarly, when the disciples of John the Baptist inquired of Jesus whether or not He was the Christ, Jesus replied to them that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news. (Luke 7:22) Changes happen with blessing and faith.

In 1982 I was fortunate to attend the annual Spring Lectures at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina. The keynote lecturer that year was Reuel Howe, an Episcopal priest. During one of his lectures on the foundations and approaches to ministry Dr, Howe announced that Jesus Christ is about change and those who oppose change oppose Christ. Wow, I thought to myself that’s drawing a line in the sand!

Often the change brought about by our interesting times is not what we desire, like trials, suffering, hardship, you know- hard discipleship. Nevertheless, James writes that we are to rejoice when we receive various trials because the testing of our faith produces endurance which in turn makes us mature and complete. (James 1:2-3) In the same vein Peter shares that we believers will need to suffer grief with all kinds of trials and we are to rejoice when experiencing these interesting times. Adversity does not necessarily build character, but it certainly reveals character.

Nearly two decades ago Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas described a model of leadership through “meaning-making” by the way of crucibles. They define crucibles as often difficult events that result in change and growth for individuals. (Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders)  James and Peter would concur- that crucibles of faith provide change and growth in us followers of Jesus.

We do indeed live in interesting times- may we always live in interesting times. And whether they are curses or blessings- it is how we wish!