“Her family has farmed in this area for three generations.” The speaker at a high school graduation points out that Cindy, the class valedictorian, is the child of two previous graduates. Cindy’s parents married soon after graduation and are well known in the community. Her father is the reeve of the municipal district. Her mother operates a business and volunteers in community organizations. Two sets of grandparents have lived in the community all their lives. “Cindy understands the values and traditions of her family. She knows who she is.” After the ceremony someone comments “Cindy is fortunate to know who she is. Most of us don’t know who we are…”
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Ray Latimer has spent a lifetime wondering who he is. He ponders this question as he cuts grass along the provincial highways west of Borden, Sask. After retiring as a grain elevator agent, Ray bought a tractor and mower and successfully bid on a contract to cut grass.
I tell Ray that I envy him sometimes. He says, “When the sun is shining and my equipment is working, I enjoy what I do.” When summer thunderstorms loom and he has a mechanical breakdown, Ray says his job is not as ideal as it looks. He adds that, no matter how many challenges he has now, “life has been much more difficult at times.”
Ray was badly burned and abandoned as a six to 12-month-old baby during the London Blitz in the Second World War. He was taken to an orphanage. The officials there did not know anything about him. He was found on Latimer Street so they gave him the surname Latimer.
Through sponsorship by the United Church of Canada and the British Government, Ray came to Canada to work on a farm in Ontario. He says the farm family was kind to him, but he knew that he would not spend his life there. He found work in the construction industry and eventually began working with a seed company. This led to a position as a grain buyer at Borden. Now he spends his summers cutting grass along the highways.
Ray grew up alone in the world with no knowledge of his mother and father or any other family members. He wonders who they were, but this question has never been answered.
“Who am I?” is the probing question for humans. It ranks with the age-old questions “what is the nature of God?” and “what is the meaning of life?” The related questions are, “why am I here?” and “what am I supposed to be doing?” Each of us needs to answer these questions in our own way.
Dr. Armand Nicholi teaches at the Harvard Medical School. He says, “All of us have a world view. Our attempt to make sense out of our existence contains our answers to the fundamental questions concerning the meaning of our lives, questions that we struggle with at some level all of our lives, and that we think about when we wake up at three o’clock in the morning.”
I believe God has created us for a purpose. Our goal in life should be to learn what that purpose is, and to achieve as much of God’s purpose as we are able.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. — Chief Seattle
Suggested Scripture: Job 19:14-26, Matthew 25:31-46
Bishop Rod Andrews is with the Anglican Diocese in Saskatoon
