Musings from a Pilgrim Who Loved His Life
This reflection is a guest reflection from a former Salesianum student, an Oblate of St. Francis High school in Wilmington, Delaware. Francis C. Shivone passed away after a painful struggle with cancer. As he battled cancer, Fran decided to reflect on his life and share thoughts and recollections. Below is one of his reflections.
Keep Rowing
All happy families are alike, and all unhappy families are unalike in their own way. - Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Like all book lovers, I have favorite quotations and opening lines. As I was compiling the essays and doing “paste up” for this book I looked for places to include these favorites… I found just the right place for my last quotation and the related thoughts.
It is a well-known opening line from one of the world’s great novels, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. I have liked and wanted to include this observation from Tolstoy’s novel because my siblings and I had the privilege of a good home and I think what he says is true. And because, now sixty years after childhood, I am at the beach with my sister, a few of my children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews and their children. And we’re all sitting and watching the football game and this sentence comes to mind, again, because I noticed a lot of happy and eager faces.
None of this is to say we don’t have troubles. We do. And it is not to say that this happiness that Tolstoy refers to is not in every sense a gift. It is. Things can turn off bad in a split second through no fault of one’s own. Ask Job.
This happiness is a gift from God by his grace. But it is both a gift and a state that is earned. And that’s where the rowing comes in
Everyone raising children knows that if there is any chance at success at parenthood, time and effort are required. One must climb into a boat and row, as it were. You don’t ask questions. Everyday you hop in the canoe that is your life, you grab a paddle and then you row.
And if you do it long enough and with some cheerfulness and appreciation for what you’ve been given, things tend to work your way. I said tend because there are no certainties. The uncertainties are part of the adventure that is your life. It is a pilgrimage because you are aiming towards somewhere, and an adventure because you struggle and conquer, and you may fail along the way. The point is, no matter what, keep rowing.
In these past forty or fifty years of rowing I have noticed little fractures in time when everyone seemed particularly happy; a snowy Christmas Eve, a sixteenth birthday party, family at the beach surrounded by family, captivated by the Philadelphia Eagles winning a football game on TV.
This is why you row. They are why you row. And yes keep rowing.
May Fran Rest In Peace. Amen
