Twixt and Tween are my best friends.
You have met them. You see them everytime that you ask me a question and I offer you responses from various points on a continuum.
You know. Never the extreme. Always somewhere in between.
Twixt and Tween.
Coming from a more fundamentalist faith, I tended to see things in absolutes and extremes. Right OR wrong. Good OR bad. It was a faith without variation. It was a faith that talked of black or white. Colors were optional.
In college, I met a man who would become an early mentor. In his Bible class, he introduced me to critical thinking regarding religious texts. In addition to teaching me to think, understanding that there were contradictions in the scriptures, he taught me that there were various theories regarding the development and understanding of holy texts. I became curious and began to reconsider in a different way, the faith that I had abandoned.
He introduced me to Twixt and Tween.
Later, in seminary, I listened to my New Testament professor as he talked of theories and understandings that differed, sometimes dramatically. When questioned as to his theoretical leanings, he would respond, “I feel strongly both ways.”
Twixt and Tween were his friends, too.
As Episcopalians, we are rooted in the Anglican Tradition which is often identified with the Via Media, the Middle Way. It seems to me that one of the peculiarities of our spiritual journey is that we are accompanied by Twixt and Tween. We read the scriptures, understand tradition, and use our reason while realizing that there are more “better” answers than “right” answers. Usually, we wind up suspended betwixt and between, seeing possibilities in various thoughts and approaches, while acknowledging the supremacy of none. It can be an uncomfortable place, especially in a world that keeps asking for absolutes, answers. But, it is our way.
And, it is the nature of Holy Week. Holy Week is that time between Palm Sunday and Easter, between the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and Resurrection. Many events and things happen betwixt and between those two events. Teaching, prayer, meditation, friendship, comfort, agony, betrayal, dinner, service, and death, just to name a few. Twixt and Tween are not idle, but busy with life, love, death, and ultimately, resurrection.
Twixt and Tween are our friends.
I learned recently of the death of my mentor. He lived his life fully, in anticipation of the life to come. I approach his death with ambivalence, aware of seemingly conflicting feelings. On the one hand, I grieve my loss while on the other hand, I celebrate his life. I live with both of these emotions, cognizant that he gave me much, and that some of him lives in my memories and actions.
And also, that he leaves me with my friends.
Twixt and Tween.
