My current research brought this poem of George Herbert entitled “The Elixir” across my path. I was struck by the way he, in one sense, reclaims the mundane drudgery of most of our lives. If we’re honest, we all aspire, in some measure, to achieve and do great and grandiose things. However, life quickly has a way of knocking such thoughts from our heads. The majority of us (i.e. the 99%) will live “dull” and “boring” lives. Is there any hope for something beyond the average mediocrity of life? Herbert doesn’t seem to think that there is something beyond the humdrum of our daily existence, but rather within it. What is it that Herbert sees within our daily monotony? He sees God. Even more, he sees work, such as, sweeping the floor, divine. If you’re out there cleaning toilets, entering data, or laying pipe, take heart that all such activities in this life bear divinity.
Teach me, my God and King,
In all things thee to see,
And what I do in anything,
To do it as for thee:
Not rudely, as a beast,
To run into an action;
But still to make thee prepossessed,
And give it his perfection.
A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye;
Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heav’n espy.
All may of thee partake:
Nothing can be so mean,
Which with his tincture for thy sake
Will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine:
Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
Makes that and th’ action fine.
This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold:
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.
~ George Herbert
BD