Rapidity is another force causing massive stress in the workplace. Baudrillard, a French philosopher, speaks of the exponential speed of modern life. Where things are moving too quickly, nothing can stabilize, gather, or grow. There is a lovely story of a man exploring Africa. He was in a desperate hurry on a journey through the jungle. He had three or four Africans helping him carry his equipment. They raced onward for about three days. At the end of the third day, the Africans sat down and would not move. He urged them to get up, telling them of the pressure he was under to reach his destination before a certain date. They refused to move. He could not understand this; after much persuasion, they still refused to move. Finally, he got one of them to admit the reason. This native said, “We have moved too quickly to reach here; now we need to wait to give our spirits a chance to catch up with us.” Many people who are secretly weary of work have never given themselves time, or taken time out or away from work, to allow their spirits to catch up. Giving yourself plenty of time is a simple but vital reflective exercise: Leave all agendas behind you. Let the neglected presence of your soul come to meet and engage you again. It can be a lovely reacquaintance with your forgotten mystery.
The Celtic imagination testifies to a different concept and experience of time. The recognition of presence and the celebration of nature were only possible because time was a window on the eternal. Time was never reduced to achievement. Time was time for wonder. This is still one of the charming things about Ireland. People here still have time. In contrast to many areas in the Western world, people here inhabit a more flexible and open time rhythm. The ideology of rapidity and clinical efficiency have not gained a grip here, yet.
THE SALMON OF KNOWLEDGE
Surprisingly, there is often great irony in the way the soul behaves. Sometimes in the work world a person with analytic, linear vision can miss out totally on the harvest and fruits of work. The imagination has a particular rhythm of vision that never sees directly in a linear way. The eye of the imagination follows the rhythm of the circle. If your vision is confined to linear purpose, you can miss out on the secret destiny that a form of activity can bring you. There is a lovely, old Celtic story about Fionn Mac Cumhaill and the salmon of knowledge. Fionn wanted to become a poet. In Celtic Ireland, to be a poet was a sacred vocation. The poets summed up in themselves a supernatural power, the power of the druid and the power of creativity. Poets had special access to mysteries that were not available to the common masses.
There was a salmon in the river Slane in County Meath. Whoever caught this salmon and ate it would become the greatest and most gifted poet in Ireland and would also receive the gift of second sight. There was a man called Fionn the Seer who had spent seven years pursuing this salmon. Young Fionn Mac Cumhaill came to him to learn the craft of poetry. One day Fionn the Seer came back, having caught the salmon of knowledge. He started a fire and put the salmon on a spit. The salmon had to be turned very carefully and could not be burned or the gift would be ruined. After a while the fire went low, and the salmon could no longer be cooked properly. Fionn the Seer had no one to gather more wood for the fire. Just then his protégé, Fionn, came out of the wood, and he left him to turn the salmon slowly on the spit. Young Fionn Mac Cumhaill began to turn the salmon, but he was a dreamer and he allowed his mind to wander. When he looked, a blister had appeared on the side of the salmon. He grew very anxious, knowing that Fionn the Seer would be furious with him for having ruined the salmon. With his thumb he tried to press the blister back in. As soon as he did, he burned his thumb, then put it in his mouth to relieve the pain. There was some of the oil of the salmon on his thumb, and as soon as he tasted the salmon oil, he received the wisdom, the gift of second sight, and the vocation of poet. Old Fionn came back with the wood. As soon as he looked at young Fionn’s eyes, he knew what had happened. He sat there disappointed that the destiny he had pursued so deliberately had at the last moment turned away from him to be received by an innocent young man who had never even dreamed of such a gift.
This is a good story to illustrate how the linear mind, despite its sincerity and commitment, can totally miss the gift. The imagination in its loyalty to possibility often takes the curved path rather than the linear way. Such risk and openness inherit the harvest of creativity, beauty, and spirit.
