Is life a river of no return? In the sense that it flows inexorably from birth to death and not the other way about it can be compared to the river that flows from the highlands to the lowlands and not the other way about. This essay by Andrew Kania explores the meaning of the life journey through the lens writers like Mark Twain and Hermann Hesse sought to investigate it.

Huckleberry Finn — far more than a nursery tale…

In what T.S. Eliot and Ernest Hemingway both described as one of the greatest works of English Literature, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn has too often been regarded as a novel for boys, something to make them laugh and reminisce. Yet Twain's work is far more than a nursery tale. Huckleberry Finn is a story about a boy violently abused by his father, who escapes, venturing down the Mississippi River by raft, in search of something better; in search of the beauty he knows exists within himself.

Towards the close of the novel, Finn has a moment of spiritual truth, a moment when all the events of his life are seen in a new light. He is still a boy, very much so, he still struggles with his conscience, but somewhere within all the running and all the searching, Huckleberry comes to understand:

"And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up there in heaven … [He] that's always on the lookout, and ain't agoing to allow no such miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked, and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept saying, 'There was the Sunday school, you could a gone to it …It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray; and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of boy I was, and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all". (Twain, 1985, pp. 281 – 282)

Huck Finn throughout the course of the novel has closed the eyes of boys who have been murdered beside him, has witnessed, and been victim of violent crime, has seen innocent bystanders fall into traps of extortion, and despite all this he has survived, and still has a chance at redemption. He knows that he must have a change of heart, a metanoia, and by so doing, come to know and love God.

The Old and New Testaments are replete with characters such as Huckleberry Finn, people who are intermittingly running to and running from God.

Jonah and his cathartic experience in the belly of a whale…

One such character is Jonah, a prophet of Galillee, seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. Jonah, knows what God wants of him, yet chooses to run away, journeying by boat as far away as he can from both the voice of God and conscience. During this journey, a storm brews on the seas and the sailors on board begin to realize that Jonah may be the cause of God's anger and tempest. Knowing this to be indeed the case, Jonah volunteers to throw himself into the ocean, where he is swallowed into the belly of the whale.

It is here, for three days, that Jonah has his own cathartic experience, a cleansing of his soul. He has been rescued from the jaws of death, and in essence, is born again when he is expelled from the whale. He is a new man, a man who realizes that his time here on earth is precarious, and that the best a person can receive in life, is the task of serving the one who created them – God. Jonah cries:

"I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?' The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!" (Jonah 2: 2-9, NRSV)

Each one of us has a tendency , to rush forward as the wave against the shore, only to pull away, when we become frightened of the degree of intimacy, or the demands of commitment, or the risks and sufferings associated with loving and being in love, or the fear of losing ourselves in a relationship. Yahweh is a God of love, and being a lover requires of us all those things which frighten the human spirit, but without which the human spirit can have no life. God calls, always asking of us, more than we think is possible, for without this demand and end his encouragement, one can never grow. God's call is discomforting as it involves growing pains, and the transition to maturity requires the child to dispose of one set of toys for another, and for the adult to reject selfishness for selflessness.

Hermann Hesse in his wonderful novel Siddhartha (1922) explains the spiritual journey of the individual in terms of the life of the river. Our lives flow as the river toward some great unknown ocean, and to live life to the fullest we must reach our destination, but all the while, this "great unknown", scares us, and the lights and the distractions of the shore call us. When we reach the shore we are tantalized — but for brief moments. Yet we soon come to realize that the flow of the river still calls and draws, and we cannot retreat up stream, the pull of the river is too great. Life moves on as the water ebbs and flows and speeds through its course.

It is when we realize that God is our end-point that we can begin to enjoy the journey, stop running from ourselves and our anxieties, and listen to the voice of the river, telling us more and more about the wonders of the Great Ocean that we are being led toward. It is at this point that all becomes clear, we come to know, cherish and understand ourselves, and then life truly begins.

Image Credits:
The image of the river used in the headline has been sourced from stock.xchng. The photographer is Andres Ojeda of Mexico. Clicking on the other images will take you to the original source.

©2008 Dr Andrew Thomas Kania

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