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Hallo again to all. In 1820, the American writer Washington Irving published The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., which was a collection of short stories. Two of those stories, 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' and 'Rip Van Winkle', made him famous. Another story in that book is rarely mentioned, though it is often quoted without credit. Entitled 'Stratford-on-Avon', it begins:
The 21st
century is only about 5% gone, but we've seen enough to get a sense
of it. Part of its essence, its foundation, is that all of us can now
survey much more than our ancestors could. Perhaps the Indian lion cannot click on lions.com in Senegal.* But we can. We see more and we survey more. Satellite television, global newscasting, web pages and webcasting, global text messaging, and cheap air travel have enabled many people to survey vast numbers of places. When more can be surveyed, the effect can change from being homespun to being hostile, since the surveys start to overlap when they get to be too big. When two men's surveys overlap and each wants to be the very monarch of the same place, trouble is inevitable. We continue to understand the squabbles in the Anglican Communion as being mostly about power, and (despite the rhetoric) hardly at all about sex or theology or scripture. Too many people are able to survey the same places, and too many of them want to be the very monarchs of most or all that they survey. When it was a week's journey from the see of one diocese to the see of another, no one questioned the division into principalities (for indeed bishops were 'princes of the church'). If we never survey your diocese, we'd likely not feel much of an urge to be its very monarch. Monarchs make and enforce rules; would-be monarchs have made their rules and are itching to enforce them. We wonder sometimes if the real reason for many objections to women bishops is from fear that they might set a bad example by not having any desire to be monarchs of all they survey. See you next week.
Last
updated: 17 April 2005 *Note that it's actually allezleslions.com, and is not about lions, but is rather the website of the Senegal Lions, a football team. |
 This web site is independent. It is not official in any way. Our editorial staff is private and unaffiliated. Please contact editor@anglicansonline.org about information on this page. ©2005 Society of Archbishop Justus |
Irving's
description of a man who enjoys being 'the very monarch of all he surveys'
was a pithy description of what seems to be part of the essential nature
of man. There is something universally appealing to men (and occasionally
to women) about being the very monarch of all one surveys. It is a
realistic dream as long as the surveyor does not get ambitious.
There's something very homespun
(if sexist) about a man wanting to be master of the entire room that
he surveys. For the first 90% of the 20th century, the only major addition
since Irving's time to what most would-be monarchs surveyed was the
well-guarded remote control to the telly near the (unlit) fireplace.
This notion of male territoriality is well documented and well understood
in the animal kingdom. We see it in lions, wolves, caribou, bears,
and more. In studying zoology, we learn that animals mark their territory
to warn away intruders, and we learn that sometimes there are fights
over territory. But a lion cannot mark what it cannot survey; a lion
in India would never want to claim ownership of a forest in Senegal. 
