An Apology to Weathervanes

I’ve often heard one politician or another described as a political weathervane: no matter which way the political winds blow, such a man turns with them. It’s not intended to be a compliment; to be a weathervane is to opportunistic, wishy-washy, and unprincipled.

But it strikes me that that’s an insult to weathervanes. A good weathervane is a tool to tell the direction of the wind. And since the North wind comes from the north, a weathervane points not with the wind, but into the wind. That is to say, a weathervane turns to face the wind.

More than that, the weathervane is at a fixed point. However the wind blows, the weathervane (unlike the politician) doesn’t change its position one inch. It holds fast, and retains its principles while always facing the storm head on.

It seems to me that a weathervane is a perfect description of what I ought to be as a Lay Dominican: holding fast to the truth, but always turning to face the spirit of the age (or the person in front of me) so as best to point out that truth in a way the age (or the person) can hear.