Canter Bridge

A studied self-interest and the concern for community pervade the realism of the biblical Proverbs.

The wisdom of this anthology is neither romantic nor sentimental. The student applies himself to knowledge because there is a career to forge, a life to plan, a community to construct. Distractions abound, blind alleys lie to the right and left. The environment demands a certain steely, interested resolve.

Only rarely do we glimpse the joy of the attentive spectator of wisdom’s sweaty marathon.

My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad. My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right. (Proverbs 23:15–16 ESV)

A father, a mother watch the contest as veterans who can without apology pause from time to time for a rest and an appreciative look.

Blessing comes to the parent who spots a son doing what he has been trained to do, a daughter who has kept to the path and is beginning to harvest the first fruits of living wisely.

Indeed, the language reaches to gladness and exultation. To see one’s children facing hard into the wind, staying true, is no mean victory.

For a moment a father throws back his head and laughs his heart out. A mother sings her mother’s song with none of the customary restraint. Perhaps the young ones cannot yet know how we rejoice, how strong the current of jubilation when we see this part of our work done, and blessed.

Then we too face into the wind and begin the next, hard mile.