Eldritch Happenstance

Eldritch Happenstance

Back in the 1970s and 1980s in Christchurch, New Zealand, I owned several vehicles, one of which was a Morris Minor Convertible sports car affectionately named ‘Ferdinand’.

One day when I went to start Ferdinand before leaving home, the starter cable broke. Now, the starter on this model was a switch concealed under the dashboard with a short cable leading to a round knob on the centre section of the instrument panel. Pulling on the knob would start the car, however on this day the knob came out in my hand when the cable broke. So the car just could not start.

I knew that I wouldn’t have a replacement cable in my “man-shed” so I looked for something that would provide a temporary substitute. I found a short length of fine chain that looked as though it might do the job, at least to get me started for the day.

Conveniently, on the end of the chain was a cylindrical-shaped knob. It was a white and blue porcelain handle from a toilet cistern of the Victorian era. It had the word “Pull” in elaborate calligraphy emblazoned on it.

As the chain was too thick to traverse through the hole in the instrument panel where the original knob had been, I left it hanging below the dashboard and started the car by pulling down on the porcelain handle. It worked surprisingly well.

Now, being a lazy sort of fellow, as often has happened when I effect a temporary repair on something, the chain-pull starter became a permanent fixture.

Sometime later, when I took the car to have an annual inspection for registration, the inspector noticed that the starter knob was missing, and asked how to start the car. I responded by saying, “Just pull the chain!”

The inspector burst out laughing and called a colleague to share in the humour of the situation. For several long minutes they sat together in the car laughing and repeatedly starting and stopping the engine, each pull of the starter followed by peals of laughter.

Eventually, inspection forgotten, they sent me on my way with an un-inspected vehicle, but with the ticket for a fully approved annual inspection.

A few years later I sold the car with the toilet-flush starter still in use.

Now I would like to bring you forward in time to the year 2009. At this time I was living in Australia. It was while driving a Holden Commodore that, once again, I had a problem with a starter switch. I managed to start the car by running a wire from the battery to the starter solenoid (the little device that controls the starter motor). Obviously having to open the car bonnet to start the car meant that this could never be more than a very impermanent resolution to the problem.

I took the car to an auto-electrician in the town of Murwillumbah to effect a more permanent solution. While discussing the dilemma with the mechanic, I lightened the moment by relating to him the true story that I have just shared with you.

As I told him, instead of chuckling along as I expected, his eyes opened wide and he shook his head in disbelief.

“So this was in Christchurch about thirty years ago?” he asked in confirmation.

I replied in the affirmative.

“Then let me tell you a story,” he ventured.

“My wife is a New Zealander,” he began. “In Christchurch, about thirty years ago, she bought a Morris Minor Convertible. The starter was, as you have described, the porcelain handle from a Victorian toilet cistern. She was too embarrassed to tell the seller of the vehicle that she felt uncomfortable driving a car with a toilet-flush starter, so as soon as possible she had it replaced by a conventional starter. She kept the porcelain handle as a souvenir and we still have it hanging in our toilet cubicle at home as a decoration.”

Now it was my turn to sport wide-open eyes and to shake my head in wonderment. A subsequent email with a photograph confirmed the validity of the amazing co-incidence linked by 1500 miles and 3 decades. Was this eldritch happenstance (coincidence through supernatural intervention)? Are coincidences are God's teachers? Is there a lesson to be learned?

Now what sort of prayer is it that gets you (personally) started in the mornings? Is it some relic from the past that is more decorative than utilitarian? Or is it something relevant for today. It is no coincidence that the psalmists used the morning time specifically to both praise God and to bring petitions to His throne. “…It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night” (Psalms 92:1, 2). “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (Psalms 5:3). “Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee” (Psalms 143:8). “I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble” (Psalms 59:16).

-- Lionel Hartley