Revd Chris McDermott, Lead Chaplain for the University of Sussex

I see that the remake of Frank Herbert’s Dune is now being shown in the cinemas. I have seen David Lynch’s 80s cinematic version of Dune – a film that at the time was rubbished by critics and that Lynch himself repudiated. Yet Lynch’s version somehow became a cult film – which, I confess, I have seen at least five times! (Don’t judge me.) One of its crowning moments was a scrawny, villainous Sting preening about with his oiled body. Yet somehow the conspicuously awful bits of the film magically combined to (eventually) catapult it to cult-film status.

One conversation between Paul Atreides, who becomes a messiah figure, and his father, Leto, has always stood out for me. The House of Atreides is about to move from its water-drenched ocean planet, Caladan, to the desert planet, Arrakis, to replace the House of Harkonnen as fief rulers. It is where most of the action in the film takes place. It will be a drastic change about which Paul is feeling uncomfortable. Duke Leto encourages his son with the words:

Without change, something inside us dies and seldom awakens.

That note of ‘change’ strikes an area of experience that most of us know very well. When the prospect of change is afoot it can often feel undermining and destabilising, leaving us feeling insecure and exacerbating tensions between people.

At the moment I am aware that many people are feeling uncertain about the future and job security. There have been changes among members of staff – some going and some arriving – all amid the many changes that the transition from lockdown conditions to something that appears more ‘normal’ entail.

Life may feel uncomfortable for all of us at the moment, and finding resources to support our sense of being safe and healthy are of importance. Some of those resources may be right in front of us: other people and friends who we can talk to. The usual suspects hardly bear mentioning as they are so often touted: exercise, meditation etc. The thing will be to locate and identify what works for you, enhancing your own sense of balance and wellbeing, giving you energy and a sense that life and work are fruitful and worthwhile.

Attitude shifts can be equally valuable. Often, we view what is uncomfortable and what causes disequilibrium in our lives as ‘the enemy’ - the thing we may want to eliminate, deny and ignore, however much it gnaws at our confidence. Change may be one of those unsettling things.

Here we must own the wisdom of the House of Atreides: without change, something inside us sleeps and seldom awakens.

When we recognise the positive potential of those difficult moments that enter our lives in the faced with unchosen changes that we have no control over, perhaps another kind of energy makes itself available to us: they may then become agents of learning, nurture positive growth, and give rise to new connections and opportunities.

They may still daunt us – but they may also, perhaps, become cracks in the fabric of life and work that allow the light shine in (thank you Leonard Cohen!).

There is indeed a crack in everything – and that is how the light gets in: