This week, while listening to the daily news in French, the presenter kept repeating the phrase “fuite en avant”, which literally translates as “a headlong rush into something”. Not being totally satisfied with the translation, I dug deeper into the actual meaning of the term. What I found was multifold:
- throwing oneself into a dangerous situation we should be avoiding or continuing to do what led us into the crisis in the first place;
- sticking one’s head in the ground in the hopes that the problems will go away;
For the first meaning, there was an example of an author who just kept writing and writing and writing although no one was buying what he wrote. He continued to run headlong into debt instead of changing his writing style or trying something altogether different.
Today is Ash Wednesday. The Church, religion, spirituality and of course fasting have been hot topics for the past few days. Last night, I suddenly woke up to a blurred vision of the Virgin Mary singing a Beatles’ song:
Mother Mary came to me
speaking words of wisdom
let be, let it be, let it be…
In light of all the difficulties we sometimes face in life’s undertakings, if we wake to the Virgin Mary singing the Beetles, maybe we should listen and let it be?
Fuite en avant ?
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