A Legend Leaves the Job

The lunchtime mindfulness drop-ins continue on Mondays and Fridays; do come along 1.10-1.50pm for some reflection and quiet space in your week.

The last Mindfulness Community Class of the year will be Friday 21^st November, 3-4.30pm; this is for all those who've previously completed a mindfulness class, or who have some experience of regular meditation practice. No need to book in advance. 

A flag for my online day retreat, too, a day of guided practice and reflection on Saturday 29^th November, 11am-4pm. All are welcome, and this is open to the general public, too, so feel free to pass on. 

For this week's MindLetter, a special thank you, and an invitation...

I first read Elizabeth Strout as a PhD student, when My Name is Lucy Barton hit the shelves to universal acclaim. Her capacity as a storyteller to write about ordinary, beautiful, joyful, sad and totally believable things has captivated me ever since. Her books are not so much about plot as about people, and yet her people have a habit of stumbling into perplexities of plot so acute that once read, you don’t know if you could ever, yourself, go to A&E again without thinking of Olive Kitteridge, or a house in the woods without thinking of Matt Beach. ‘Life,’ her characters occasionally say; ‘people.’ These are not answers, questions, nor even descriptions; they are more like resolutions: here we are. Here we must be.

It’s thus that, while some authors who I loved for a book or two in my twenties have gone on to disappoint, I’ve been reading Elizabeth Strout for nearly a decade. I watched Lucy Barton write her memoir, and tend her marriage, and flee the pandemic; I saw Olive Kitteridge save a life, and meet Jack Kennison, and move into a care home; I retraced Strout’s steps, getting to know her earlier Burgess Boys, the aches and secrets and desires of Amy and Isabelle, Bob and Pam, the McCaskey girl, the corridor of lives lived between New York City and Maine. I, like other readers, rejoiced when the arcs of Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge and Bob Burgess all combined in 2024’s Tell Me Everything. It was like having all your favourite people in the same room, a beloved extended family of characters that you know as you do your very best friends, with the merest qualifier that they happen to be imaginary.

Strout’s upcoming novel, The Things We Never Say, will leave this extended family behind. I realised this at about the same time that I discovered that the wonderful Harriet Harris, University Chaplain of fifteen years, and my boss and colleague for six, was leaving for a new post down south. Things will be released in 2026; it is billed as a novel about grief, friendship, and secrets, with a new central character whose name – ‘Artie Dam’ – already invites eponymization. Harriet, who in her time at the University has uniquely managed to nail being both approachable and formidable at the same time, will take her trademark creativity and energy to head up Ripon College Cuddesdon in Oxford. Each of these events is, for Strout’s and Harriet’s many appreciators, a Stroutian kaleidoscope of an occurrence: one feels excitement for their new chapter – the pleasure of one of one’s favourite creatives finding new pastures – and also a hint of loss and dolour. What will life – in imagination, and in UoE – look like After Olive, and After Harriet?

Naturally, I turn back to Strout. Once again, it is not an answer that she gives, but a resolution. ‘Life,’ say her characters. ‘People.’ Here we are, here we shall be, and in so doing we will encounter it all: the gains and the losses, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the dark and the light, the beauty and the sorrow. It’s their ability to hold these, with lightness of touch, and generosity of spirit, that make Elizabeth Strout a writer of great goodness, and Harriet a University Chaplain so widely respected and beloved. So it’s with gratitude that I await The Things We Never Say, and with gratitude, too, that we send Harriet on her way, with our warmest wishes for her new venture.

Best wishes to you all,

Kitty

Please find an invitation to Harriet’s leaving party on Tuesday 2nd December, 4-6pm, below.

Dear friends 

You are warmly invited to a special celebration and farewell party for the Rev Dr Harriet Harris on the 2nd December from 4pm to 6pm at the Chaplaincy Centre in Bristo Square.

Harriet has served in her role as Senior Chaplain for 15 years and was a mentor, colleague, University leader and friend to many students, staff and supporters in all three Colleges.

Please RSVP using Eventbrite by the 28th November.

Please also do share this invitation with others whom you know have connected with Harriet over these years.  

Event details 

Date. 2nd Dec

Tine. 4-6pm 

Venue. Chaplaincy Centre 

RSVP 

Farewell Gift Collection

A 'memory book' for Harriet is at Chaplaincy's Reception, for messages, thanks, printed photos and anything else you'd like to share with her. This will also be available at the party. If you would like to contribute to Harriet's leaving gift collection, you can do so here or in cash at Reception.