4th June, 2006

THAT’S THE SPIRIT!

The English call it ‘pavement’, the Irish call it ‘footpath’, the Americans call it ‘sidewalk’ and in all cases it refers to the area generally regarded as reserved for pedestrians. I arrived in the country with the genuine belief that, whatever they called it, the French would have the equivalent at the side of the street. Foolish me! Sure, they had something that looked very like a footpath, but was it?

I thought so until recently I was walking along a not-very-wide footpath, and I could hear a motorbike uncomfortably close behind me. Before I had time to look around and check, it whizzed past, missing me by inches. I was so shocked and annoyed, and focussed on the bike ahead of me, that I wasn’t ready for the one that followed immediately after. On looking behind me I wasn’t greatly surprised to see that there were two more coming in quick succession.

It was then that I noticed that the riders were all wearing the same kinds of jackets – the fluorescent kind that workmen at the side of the street wear so that drivers can see them easily. I thought it must be the outfit of some kind of biker gang whose speciality was terrifying pedestrians. They continued along the footpath ahead of me, and I noticed they stopped about 200 yards further on and went into the building there. When I got as far as the building, why was I not surprised to see that it was an ‘école moto’? It explains a lot!

But none of that phased me, or to be honest, amused me, as much as the car the other day, that I thought was going to speed my trip to the next life. I was standing at the edge of the footpath, waiting for the lights to change, when, out of the side of my eye I became aware of a car mounting the footpath just to my left, and coming straight for me. Just as I was about to jump, it stopped inches short of me. Then I saw the window being rolled down, a hand reached out and deposited a plastic cup in the waste bag beside me. But then, you wouldn’t expect the police to break the law by depositing waste on the streets, would you?

If driving instructors teach by bad example, and police break the more serious laws in order to observe the lesser ones, it’s possibly a sign that the spirit of the times needs a bit of renewal. Today we rejoice with our young people who, of course, have benefited from the good example in their homes, and who have been taught that the greatest law is the love of God and one another. As they are being confirmed today, maybe it’s no harm to ask whether we ourselves might not benefit from a little renewal in the Spirit.