11. A Meditation on the Question: What is in a Box of Chocolates?

Dearly Beloved,

Well Christmas is coming and we shall be asking “what is in the box with the elegant wrapping of paper and ribbon?”

Many years ago, soon after my wife and I moved to France we went to a rural, summer fete organised by the local communist party. One of the stalls was replete with quite large beautifully wrapped and ribboned boxes. One paid to choose one or play a game to win one. The eager anticipation of opening the boxes soon gave way to bemusement for the boxes were completely empty except for a stuffing of torn up newspaper! We made enquiries of our French neighbours and they told us that the lovely but empty boxes represented the unfulfilled promises of capitalism. They were nothing more than a piece of communist party propaganda especially aimed at children!

Recently a friend gave me a box of Swiss Chocolates from the Choclatier Du Rhone based in Geneva. The taste was quite exquisite, probably the tastiest chocolates I have ever encountered. The top layer comprised nine flat chocolates and when I had finished those I looked forward to the second layer. But, there was no second layer, instead where such a layer might have reposed, there were nine cubes of gold plated cardboard encompassing nine empty spaces.

I was reminded of the Communist Party fete and its beautiful boxes. There was real irony here, for capitalism was half living up to the communist expectations. There were also profound philosophical and religious questions. Why was the box large enough to enclose two rows of nine chocolates yet contained only one? Was the box of chocolates half full or half empty? Was I guilty of bringing the disappointment upon myself for not turning the box over to read the tiny writing on the underside of the box which, had my eyesight been better, might have informed me the box contained only 9 chocolates.? Was the Choclatier Du Rhone run by a man or women with secret (half) communist sympathies who nevertheless was impelled to sell chocolates to support his or her family? On the other hand was it a subtle form of advertising and extreme form of capitalism, which essentially told you that “our chocolates are so wonderful that you are only allowed half the quantity you thought you were going to get, but you can fulfill your needs by purchasing another half full (or half empty) box?

Or was it all Calvin's fault? Did the Choclatier feel pressure from Calvin, the French theologian, who came to rest in Geneva and was so influential? Was the director made to feel that he or she was encouraging the greed that Calvin was so active in criticising, so that he restricted himself to only putting one layer of chocolates in the box?

Well we shall probably never know the answers to these profound questions. Nevertheless I would like to thank Choclatier Du Rhone; we may never know if their box was half full or half empty of chocolates, but they certainly produced a box overflowing with philosophical, psychological, political and theological questions on communism, capitalism and Calvinism. The chocolates were exceptionally delicious too!

Peace and many full chocolate boxes to you all,

Paul Munton.


An empty but enigmatically full, chocolate box.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  An Introduction to T he Manifold Letters. These letters were produced as part of a brilliant project managed by the Rev. Robert and Sarah Van de Weyer. During the Covid-19 pandemic. Letters were written every day for two and a half years by both ordained and lay members of the congregation of St Clement's Church in Cambridge and distributed to others both in the congregation and people outwith St Clement's as Dearly Beloved letters. (DB letters). They dealt with manifold issues including psychological survival during the pandemic, personal stories and experiences of life, philosophy and theology, music, the beauty of creation, wildlife and secular and church politics, the mysteries of the Christian faith and the exigencies of the pursuit of a Christian life. Each letter was accompanied by a photograph all of which can be enlarged by clicking on them. The Rt Rev. Rowan Williams was a contributor for six months whilst he worshiped and officiated at the St Clement's during...
Read more
Image
76. On The Anti-Christian Nature of the Small State Ideology. Nearly Beloved*, The first time I heard the cry for a “Small State” in the political context, it was uttered by those involved in a dispute over US grazing lands. The “s cofflaw” , Cliven Bundy, refused to pay the Federal Grazing Fees or recognise his obligations to the US government's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on whose lands his cattle grazed. In 2014 and 2016, the Bureau's response was to round up his cattle and remove them. That led to the congregation of armed anti-government activists, including the Proud Boys. These armed groups forced the BLM to back down because the Bureau was worried about the safety of its staff and of the public and felt unable to protect them. The US Government failed to support its own laws and regulation in the face of armed threat. This, and similar range land incidents, occurred prior to the assault on the US Capital by armed activists in an attempt to reverse the result of t...
Read more
Image
24. On War. Dearly Beloved, It is difficult for us to cope with a war in Europe so close to home, especially because it is a war within Christendom between Christian communities. Apart from the civil war in Herzegovina, there has been peace in Europe for 77 years. My father was 28 years old and my mother 22 when war broke out in 1939. My father was already in the Royal Navy and my mother joined the Auxillary Territoral Service. “The War” in my family continued in talk and discussion long after the fighting had actually stopped. It was the background to my childhood and was made more prominent when my mother organised her family to fly us out to Malta in 1953 where my father's ship lay in Sliema Creek. We lodged close by whilst he finished an extra year of service obligated by the Korean War. One my earliest memories is of looking down from a prop driven Vickers Viscount aircraft at the ships on the Mediterranean sea shining in the sun far below. That was the same Mediterrane...
Read more