Borders and Liminal Space

Borders have been in the news to a great extent recently.  Donald Trump does not seem to have much respect for the borders of other countries – particularly Canada, proclaiming that Canada is not a real country and should become the 51^st State.  He declared that the Canadian U.S. border is just the result of someone drawing an artificial line.  Putting aside the part of the border that follows the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River basin, it is true that it was drawn by people along the 49^th parallel by mutual agreement after much mutual disagreement; 54-40 or fight and all that entails in our history for example.  However, this is true of many, if not most, of the borders that exist now and have existed throughout human history. 

Then there is the supreme disrespect shown by Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the borders of Ukraine.  These are, of course, just two current examples of the challenges and serious consequences brought about by the drawing and redrawing of borders between countries by leaders throughout history.  The lack of respect for borders leads to serious consequences to put it mildly. 

 Reflecting on borders brought to mind the wonderful song on this subject, Borderline, by Joni Mitchell.  The first verse lays it out beautifully:

Everybody looks so ill at ease
So distrustful, so displeased
Running down the table
I see a borderline
Like a barbed wire fence
Strung tight, strung tense
Prickling with pretense
A borderline

This song addresses much more that the borders between countries and summarizes the damage and destruction that that human tendency to draw borders between – well just about everything.  Again, the lyrics state it so well:

Every bristling shaft of pride
Church or nation
Team or tribe
Every notion we subscribe to
Is just a borderline
Good or bad, we think we know
As if thinking makes things so
All convictions grow along a borderline

Is this tendency to draw boundaries and borders that separate us so effectively, actually inevitable?  It certainly seems to be as the evidence is all around us.  We naturally identify people and things as ‘the other’ – not like me or us – as the song says, “all convictions grow along a borderline.”  Psychologist Carl Jung identified the tension of opposites that exists between things – positive and negative psychic energy in tension.  The desire – conscious or unconscious – is to try and eliminate that tension.  This tension, rather than being something to eliminate, is seen as the source of growth, transformation, and the development of consciousness.  Friedrick Von Hugel named this ‘divinely intended tension’ which puts it into the realm of God’s plan for creation.  Richard Rohr addressed this, “Growth is the boundary between the darkness of unknowing and the light of new wisdom, new insight, new vision of who and what we ourselves have become.” Richard Rohr July 15, 2025 

Holding that tension and allowing the liminal space between the opposites will allow something new to be born.  This is not the normal response to things we see as the Other.  However, it seems to be the way in which, as people of God, we can work towards bringing about this world to be how God intends it to be.   

Joni Mitchell’s Borderline can be seen on-line here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqOzVh4eLqc

I invite you to listen to the song and take in the lyrics that express so well the danger and temptations of borders and reflect on how you might hold the tension between the borders in your life and see what might be born.

 

My Time is Not God’s Time

I am at a point in life when I take six pills each day – some are by prescription and some are vitamin supplements.  Some time ago I decided to swallow – not one of the pills in this case – but my pride and admit that it would be easier to have one of those seven day containers for my pills as I didn’t always remember if I had taken my pills or not – perhaps there is a pill for that but it is not on my list of pills.  In any case I recharge the daily pill container on Friday’s – nothing significant about the day but it is just when I do it.  It used to be Thursdays but I forgot to take them one day a while ago so it became Friday proving even a good system is not foolproof. 

Well, I am telling you this because I am always amazed when Friday rolls around and it is time to recharge the pill container.  How could a week have gone by so quickly?   A long, long, time ago in a land fairly far away when I was a child, a week seemed interminable.  I remember saying to myself at one point, I hope the weekend would last forever so I wouldn’t have to go back to school–being the kind of child who seemed to be out of sync with school and never in the right place in my learning experience – but that is a story for another day.  In any case the week at school did seem to last forever. 

Time does seem to be very flexible and stretches out or shrink in my experience.  I was at the Long-term care yesterday to do an Anglican worship service for the residents.  Visitors have to have a COVID test which requires waiting for fifteen minutes to get the results.  Another visitor remarked that this period was always the longest fifteen minutes of her life.  I was going to mention that it didn’t seem as long as the two minutes of silence on Remembrance day which I used to have to count out when I presided at Remembrance Day Services.  This, of course, has nothing to do with it not being significant – just the opposite.  Every second of that silence holds deep significance. But I didn’t get the chance as the staff person gave us the all clear and I headed off to the gathering congregation.  Time does seem to be flying by these days but it couldn’t be that I am getting old - can it?

Time flows on and there seems to be no stopping it.  As the Joni Mitchell song says, “it won't be long now, till you drag your feet to slow the circles down.”  

When we move into timelessness and eternity we are moving from our time to God’s time.  Some time ago, I listened to recordings of Northrop Frye’s lectures on the Bible and Literature https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Swyk_ZRy8.  He notes that the creation story in Genesis did not happen in linear time, it happens in God's time.  In effect, it is a timeless event which is happening all the time. 

As Frye notes, the Bible speaks of time in two different ways; time is either Kairos or Chronos.  Simply put, Chronos is measurable time which has a beginning and an end.  Kairos, on the other hand, means an opportune time, a moment or a season such as harvest time.  St. Paul uses Kairos in the passage from Ephesians 5:15-16, “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.”  

If you have ever been caught in a moment when time seemed to stop or disappear, you have moved from Chronos to Kairos.  We need to be aware of when we want things to happen on our schedule, in Chronos and become aware that they sometimes happen in Kairos.  It is a reminder that as much as we like to believe it, we don’t often set the agenda.  That can be frustrating but it can also be liberating.

May you be blessed on your journey to experience it In Kairos and well as Chronos.           

The Circle Game

 Recently, I have had the new experience of entertaining on Zoom as part of the program for One Care which, of course, is not able to have its usual programs in person because of the Corona Virus.  I have done this three or four times so far and realized that I should try and expand my repertoire.  One of the ‘new’ songs I have been learning is The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell.  This is certainly not a new song and I was very familiar with it but have never learned to play and sing it which is very different than just listening to it or even singing along.

This is a song about the years going by and how things change in our lives.  The lyrics for one verse caught my attention as particularly applicable to the time we are in these days:

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him take your time it won't be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down

This encapsulates the nature of time and how it is not a static concept.  Time is very elastic and can seem to slow down and speed up depending on what is going on in your life.  Have you noticed, as I have, that time in the shut down for the Corona Virus seem to go very slowly at the beginning back in the olden days in March but these days it seems to be getting faster and faster.  I don’t know about you, but I certainly want to drag my feet and slow time down at least a bit.  Some people who know a great deal more than I do about these things maintain that time doesn’t actually exist – it is a construct of our consciousness.  Einstein posited that as speed increases toward the speed of light time does indeed slow down and if someone was on a rocket to a distant heavenly body at a high-speed, time for them would be much slower than time would be for us on earth.  Scientist have actually tested this theory and proven it correct. 

In my experience, if I am doing an activity I enjoy, time can fly by without my being aware of it but if I am focused on time passing, it moves much more slowly – or seems to in any case.  The longest two minutes for me is the two minutes of silence at a Remember Day Service in which I count 120 seconds to ensure the silence is actually two minutes long – which seems to take forever.  I know I should be paying attention to honour those who made the supreme sacrifice but I find that difficult when I have the responsibility to ensure it is actually two minutes. 

The perception that time is speeding up is also a factor of age.  I’m sure those of you who are in the senior citizen category like me will have noted that time seems to be speeding up generally and is going by much more quickly than when we were young as the song poses.  I remember how long a week used to seem when I was growing up but then again, the week-ends did seem to fly by except possibly when I was attending a church service and my fathers sermon seems interminable – not a comment on his preaching as he was actually quite a good preacher. 

Theologians will often speak of God’s time not being our time as an explanation why things don’t happen on the schedule we lay out for events in the world or our lives.  Perhaps God does have an all-knowing view of the big picture and knows that “all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well,” as St. Julian of Norwich said.  After all, eternity is not a long time - it is outside time.  So, may I suggest that we drag our feet and slow down and notice how God is working in our lives and in the world. 

Blessings on your journey which I hope does not go by too quickly