I met a man who wasn't there!
He wasn't there again today,
Oh how I wish he'd go away!"
By William Hughes Mearns (1875–1965)
You must have heard the nonsense poem made famous by Mearns. It makes us smile when we hear it, because we know it makes no sense and we don’t have to think too much about any deeper meaning. But, I ask you, is it really nonsense?
I think we can get so used to something, or someone, being there and yet one day we turn around and it or they are not there anymore. Next day, or next month, or even next year we look again and still nothing. Did we take that special memory for granted? Probably, but that might mean we didn’t do all we could to savour and keep the importance of that memory alive, which was a once treasured possession.
Instead of taking the line “Oh how I wish he’d go away” at face value, is it possible that the writer is haunted by their unexpected loss, and now needs some peace from the haunting memory and that’s what he wants to go away? I suggest what is true of people, can also be true about things. Or to be more accurate, things which are made up of people. A club, a community, and yes, possibly even a church! At one time not so long ago, it was there but when we turn around some time later we notice it isn’t there now. Or at least not in the way we remember it, and the thought of that memory haunts us.
As with people who have died, churches close and die too, in which case the poem might read:
As I was going up to prayer,
I saw a church that wasn't there!
It wasn't there again today,
Oh how I wish it’d go away!
(My apologies to Mearns!)
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