A Jesuit view of our dance to the music of Time

Dancing with Time, by José María R. Olaizola SJ  (€14.95 / 12.95)

When this book first came into my hands, the title brought to mind at once  Anthony Powell’s twelve volume novel A Dance to the Music of Time (1951-1975) concerning the  continually shifting and ever interacting aspects of the life of a Welsh old Etonian Nicholas Jenkins. The theme was inspired initially  by Nicolas Poussin’s painting, well know to Londoners,  A Dance to the Music of  Time (1634).

But the idea of life as an interacting dance is not fully pursued in  Fr Olaizola’s  book, being only alluded to from time to time, but in a significant way.  He wants his book to have a popular feel, and does not wish, I think, to put readers off by being “too clever”. That for him would be a failure of purpose.

Audiences

The author tells us indeed that his book is intended for two audiences, the younger generation coming up and a mature adult readership. Doubtless the chapters intended  for the younger generation will be found full of meaning and sound insight by their intended readers, but for me the chapters intended for the mature readers were far more interesting and relevant.  A matter of horses for courses, I suppose: we cannot help being the age we are.

Listening to the music and following your feet, you can learn to live better with others, deal with the future and talk to your past and future selves”

The Powell parallel too is perhaps out of order because the cultural references of the author belong either to Spanish culture,  or to the sort of media culture of the United States that is now universal, as with the saddening comments on Matthew Perry, the ill-fated comedian from Friends.

Pattern

Whereas Poussin and Powell saw life as having a sort of inevitable pattern dictated by the music, this book suggests that, as the author remarks, “Listening to the music and following your feet, you can learn to live better with others, deal with the future and talk to your past and future selves.” All in all this is a refreshing and moving exploration of universal emotions seen through a Christian prism.

Like packs of hounds they attack anyone who goes off-script. It would be sad, if it weren’t also a little scary, to see where this state of affairs leads”

The overall flavour of Fr Olaizola’s  writing can be found in passages like this :

“Rants, merciless criticism, disrespect, anathemas and condemnations, as if we were once again involved in the religious wars that bled Europe dry a few centuries ago. They use the same tactics as any other angry group. Like packs of hounds they attack anyone who goes off-script. It would be sad, if it weren’t also a little scary, to see where this state of affairs leads.

“Few things seem more immature to me than this all-out rigidity, don’t know if there has ever been more talk of  ‘tolerance’ from positions of such entrenched intolerance – so many insults used as labels for others. Labels are being used so crudely that they are either normalised or lose all meaning.

“Just think how quickly people call large parts of the population ‘fascist’. How easily someone with different views on a nation, a language or conflict resolution is called a ‘traitor’. Someone who argues that certain moral issues need re-thinking is called ‘degenerate’, and someone who asks for more careful thought on those issues instead of rushing to change the law is labelled ‘retrograde’ or ‘traditionalist.”