Day 46 of the End to End began at the Anderton Boat Lift and continued along the Trent and Mersey Canal, via several tunnels, until it met the Bridgewater Canal. During the course of the walk I met the Fudge Boat. From what I’d already heard about it, the fudge boat seemed somewhat mythical: a canal boat going up and down canals in the North of England selling many different flavours of fudge, all made on board. But it was real, it was in front of my eyes. The elderly couple who run this enterprise were friendly and keen to share fudge. We had a chat, I tasted some samples and bought some fudge for Bob.
Bob has his own LEJOG fudge story of a man in a van who gave him a fudge in 2003, having first asked him if he was a diabetic (he’s not). Fudge has it’s own place in the annals of the End to End (though not quite on a par with ice cream or fish and chips). A year ago, some folks commented that this blog was mostly about food. Well, you will need some if you attempt LEJOG!
Meanwhile in 2020, there’s also a lot of fudge about. It’s interesting how this squidgy sweet substance has come to be used as a metaphor for some sort of cover up or inadequate response to a situation. I certainly prefer it to war metaphors.
Today falls on Ascension Day, the day remembered for Jesus leaving the disciples. It’s a tricky one for modern rememberers. The footprints were there, they’d seen his resurrected body, ate breakfast with him, heard him speak. He’d promised to continue to accompany them, but then he left them. Did it feel like a second bereavement?
There was a moving COVID story on the news of a GP who had been in ICU on a ventilator for over a month, who said his only plan was ‘to get home to his family’. He was interviewed at home with them, but the report finished with the news he’d had to go back to hospital. In Mental Health Week there’s no doubt that that there’s a lot more anxiety about: plans don’t work out, there are people to worry about and circumstances to frustrate us
In my email correspondence with an old friend, we have been revisiting Julian of Norwich (I blogged about her on 8th May). What can a 14th century woman offer us in these times: more fudge?
Julian led a full and complex life. As she reflected on it through her writing she was holding together many different ideas: those she’d been taught about God and faith and those that had been validated by her direct experience. Likely as not they didn’t always add up. In her writing we see her trying to work this out. It helps me to know that as a human being she was doing just what I have been doing all my life. And yes I do pray: some days it’s all I can do. Not because I think God has favourites, but because being on God’s team of mercy, justice and love is the shirt I’ve worn all my life and the scarf I will continue to wave.
But it does bring with it tough questions. At the moment I’m considering how to ‘clap for carers’ and ‘boo for visas’ at the same time. More fudge anyone? No thanks.
From the remembered gospel: And then he left them.
Where’s Jesus when you need him?
Right here alongside me or over there cartwheeling across the universe?
I give thanks for the fudge makers on their small boat;
for the rich history of human spirituality that links me to folks in challenging times and places through ages and across cultures;
for the willingness to be disturbed in faith, to question and to pray anyway.
Jesus, there’s no doubt I prefer you here alongside me than way away.
May the strength of the Holy Spirit, advocate and helper,
preserve us in challenging time, uphold us in trouble,
heal us in sickness, forge us in Love.
And when the time comes for choices, may we decline the fudge
in favour of the truth that God demands from kindom sharers.
JAL: 21.05.2020 in Longdendale.