Kindred Spirits

What do LM Montgomery and Sheldon VanAuken have in common? 

LM Montgomery - Anne of Avonlea  - an old friend - audio read

Sheldon VanAuken - A Severe Mercy

I don't know that LM Montgomery coined the term "kindred spirits," but in using it she managed to capture something ethereal and intangible, but "you know Teacher" as her student Paul said to her whenever he described something that lay in the realm of the imagination. And that's just it. The quality of kindred spiritness lies in the invisible connection that binds two people who know how to dwell in the realm of the imagination. How can you perceive it? You know it when you find it. It might lie in the etherworldly gaze of someone who is thinking of something far away. Those who speak in metaphor and linger too long in the dusk watching the remnants of the sunset. An unmistakable exchange of a glance of understanding and sympathy that no one else perceives. A conversation that drifts into hours that feel like minutes exploring an idea to its full ripeness. An exchange of pure silence when words are not needed. Thoreau -  "I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life." Those who seek out the less taken path  - veering from the confines of convention.

I have found these folk in real life - a rare exchange, not something one stumbles upon every day or week or year. Most often I have found them in the pages of a book.

Sheldon VanAuken's exploration of love told in the context of the devotion he experienced with his late wife "Davy" is such an encounter. Their devotion was overshadowed by their submission to a greater devotion - that of God that encompassed their marriage and accompanied them through her death and the rest of his life.
The author weaves in poetry (usually his own) and an exchange of letters with CS Lewis about faith, life, love, and loss. The kindred spiritness comes in as he describes his and Davy's avid love of nature and a general worship of beauty and the intellectual life that reached a climax during their stay in Oxford where they discovered a community of like minded people who eventually helped channel them to God in Christianity.
It's an honest and moving expression of their story. There are some good theological points, and an inspiring account of sacrificing something good and beautiful for something better - a familiar death. (Familiar to me) I know the devotion of God and his passionate jealousy for anything that might be a high place idol - sin or otherwise.
However it is also a celebration of kindred spiritness.
Vanauken speaks of their pledge to the Shining Barrier - a pledge that nothing would supercede their love for one another - a romantic notion that as a girl (I actually did read this when I was in my early 20s I think) - I might have thought incredibly romantic, but as an adult feel slightly cramped and suffocated by - mainly the notion that they would have no pursuits that they did not share.

Anyway - they did knock around in a boat for some time - foraging off the coast of the chesepeake  - that sounds lovely.

Anne of Avonlea  - a dear old friend of my girleen hood. Remember Miss Lavender? What a dear sweet kindred spirit, who lives at Echo Lodge in her wee stone house with Charlotta the 4th trying not to be sad about true love who was lost to her. Cheering herself up with echoes, and pretty dresses, and teas for imaginary friends coming to call.
What about Mr Harrison and his parrot Ginger - and his tidy wife who shows up unannounced to the surprise of all.
Paul Irving with his kindred spirit rock people.
And most of all Anne. organizing the AVIS (Avonlea Improvement Society) - teaching her school children, bringing up Daisy and Dora with his funny questions and philosophies, Marilla - softened with tenderness, Hester Gay's little spot discovered by the picnic, all the seasons of lovely PEI fully celebrated by author and heroine, ignoring stirrings for Gilbert, Diana's engagement to Fred ( I remember when my friend got engaged to someone who I thought was hopelessly bland) - he's grown on me now. And... Miss Lavendar's marriage to her lifelong love who she thought she had lost forever.
It's funny. There really isn't much of a plot. Just a collection of anecdotes woven with humor and insight. Characters change and progress, but that's about it.