I have a friend, Tom, who is a fisherman in Alaska. He has been successful with quite a big boat with seven of a crew, but recently has "downsized" to a smaller one-man craft he used to have based in NZ. For some years during Northern winters he would visit New Zealand, and we met on a Habitat for Humanity site where he volunteered. He now has a cabin in NZ for his annual visits and says he only does "retirement" fishing in Alaska now. He is, I think a touch younger than I am. Well he called through town yesterday, on his way to Queenstown and a tramping trip in the hills around the Dart River. He just showed up at my office and we caught up over a cup of tea, and later for a short time at Space2B.
I have just arrived at the office on one of Dunedin's murky misty days. My mind went to Tom wandering the hills, free to do whatever, whenever. My mind moved on to the poem "Clancy of the overflow" and the lines, "Clancy's gone a droving and we don't know where he are." and "I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,". (not in Dunedin today)
The last verse goes...
And I somehow rather fancy
that I'd like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal --
But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of `The Overflow'.
Tom, I don't know where you are, but today I'd like to change with you, while you faced the "round eternal" of chaplaincy visits, sermon preparation, and ministry duties. I am especially envious since with my knee the way it is, I doubt I'll ever get to doing a tramp like the Dart river. Oh well, the brewery wants a chaplain there today on the anniversary of the Christchurch earthquake. I'll do some sermon/service research, visit the Newspaper chaplaincy and spend time with people at Space2B. It will be good... but I still wish I was with Tom tramping! ... maybe in two years time?
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