Falling Down

That’s a bit sad, isn’t it?

It can’t be much fun being a snowman, can it? One day you’re here, bright and shining and large as life, looking out over a winter wonderland of white; and a few days later, all there is left of you is a couple of sticks and a handful of gravel. Poor old snowman! My neighbours couldn’t even be bothered to give him a carrot for a nose…

Why did they build him? As a photo opportunity, of course. As soon as the husband had rolled up a big ball of snow, then planted one of a similar size atop it, then added a little one for a head, with gravel for eyes and a nose and buttons, his wife rushed out and held her alarmed-looking infant next to it. Out came the phone, pictures were taken - and then they were back indoors in the warm again and posting on social media.

A day later, and the snowman was leaning backwards and losing his buttons. A few days after that, and the above is all that was left of him.

And that decking, plus an area of bare gravel and bark chips, is all that is left of a mature, well-stocked and lovingly-tended garden. Our new neighbours had builders in to gut the house and build it back in the semblance of an upmarket department store’s fancy furnishings section - all ceiling lights and sofas and cream-coloured carpets. The garden was then ripped up by its roots and consigned to the dustbin of history.

I miss it. How I’ll miss those poppies, and a wealth of other floral delights, when the warmer weather arrives! As I’ve often said, I don’t like change.

However, our new neighbours obviously do. After one year of occupation, they have tired of it all and have sold up and are currently in the process of purchasing a bigger and better new build home elsewhere.

My mind goes back through the years, and I’m watching an impossibly youthful Michael Philip Jagger on television, strutting the stage and singing “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, the Stones’ first U.S. number one and their fourth in the U.K., with Keith’s lead guitar and an FZ1 Fuzz-Tone pedal cranking out one of the greatest riffs of all time. “Hmm. A double negative,” I’m thinking, “but it works well!”

And today - the satisfaction that Mick said he was seeking: has he ever found it in any lasting form, do you suppose? No, of course not. The chorus made it clear, all those years ago, fading out on “No satisfaction! No satisfaction! No…”

And our neighbours - will they ever find the ideal home in absolutely the right place and live a life that truly satisfies their unsettled souls? I seriously doubt it.

And then, all too soon, there will be no more left of them than there is of that poor old snowman. If buried, they will end up as a handful of dust alongside the rotted wood of their coffins. If cremated, a handful of ashes in an urn or sprinkled in sentimental fashion in some local beauty spot.

Solomon gives an anguished account of his own search for satisfaction in Ecclesiastes, and he tells us right at the start what there is in store: “the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” (Ec.1.8.) And: “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” (Ec.2.11.)

That’s also a bit sad, isn’t it?

Nevertheless, I commend to you his conclusion. No, I’m not telling you. It’s better if you read through Ecclesiastes for yourself: it’s only twelve brief chapters, after all.

And after that? What then? Well, Dr E. A. Johnston puts it like this. He says that there are three great questions of the human heart. Firstly: “How can I be saved?” Jesus said: “I am the way”. Secondly: “How can I be sure?” Jesus said: “I am… the truth”. Thirdly: “How can I be satisfied?” Jesus said: “I am… the life.” (Jn.14.6.)

Otherwise, as Solomon discovered, and as my neighbours will one day find out for themselves: “No satisfaction! No satisfaction! No…” And fade to black.

It doesn’t have to be that way. “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” (Is.45.22.)