TO BE KNOWN AND SEEN
I believe what made this year’s “Best Picture” The King’s Speech so compelling was its portrayal of the intimacy between Prince Albert and Lionel Logue. Imagine the loneliness and self hate Prince Albert or Bertie must have known. His father beat him, his nanny humiliated him, his brother mocked him, and beyond that, there was all the formality and custom that established distance in royal interactions. To whom could Bertie really be close, besides his spouse? Beyond speech therapy and speech exercises, what Lionel, Bertie’s speech therapist, offered him was a beautiful friendship – a gentle knowing acceptance of all Bertie was. Even as Lionel worked with Bertie’s weakness, his stammering, and his low self-esteem, he believed in Bertie and thus helped him find not only his voice, but his identity as a King. Lionel offered Bertie the living water of an intimate friendship. Presence. That experience of being known and seen, and fully accepted. Having one’s identity given worth and validity.
We are all thirsty people – yearning to be known and heard and understood. And the text of the Samaritan woman at the well proclaims that Jesus brings the gift of living water. That God knows us and loves us at our core; knows our wounds, our failures, our strengths, our brokenness, our giftedness; and wants to shower us with grace. Can we believe that? Or these words of the same sentiment from the 14th century poet, Hafiz? “I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in the darkness, the astounding Light of Your Own Being.”
