>Dee Hock

David HerbertLeave a comment

> A soul-friend discovered, and the launch of a new book prize – Jogger’s Read of the Year with the top prize going to Dee Hock’s “Birth of the Cahordic Age” discovered by me 10 years after its publication.

Dee Hock describes his relationship to insitutions – and it rings an eight bell quarter peel in my mind. he writes of his teenage rebellion:

“My rebellion was persistent, stubborn, at times stupid refusal to accept orthodox ideas, be persuaded by authoritarian means, or seek acceptance by conformity.”

He asks: “what is this chasm between how institutions profess to function and how they actually do; between what they claim to do for people and what they actualy do to them?” (p37) Among them: schools that can’t teach, unhealthy health-care systems, welfare systems in which no one fares well, farming systems that destroy soil and poison food. (p28)

I could ask in similar vein why it is that the church which is supposed to offer life in all its fullness induces such boredom and is seen as a “turn off” instead of a “turn on”, and why it is that the good news of salvation has to be cloaked in disguise in order not to frighten people off (according
to my reading of a recent PCC discussion on our parish magazine.

from R S Thomas

David HerbertLeave a comment

“It’s a long way off but inside it
There are quite different things going on;
Festivals at which the poor man
Is king and the consumptive is
Healed; mirrrors in which the blind look
At themselves and love looks at them
Back; and industry is for mending
The bent bones and the minds fractured
By life. It’s a long way off but to get
There takes no time and admission
Is free, if you will purge yourself
Of desire, and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf.”(Later Poems: 1983. p35)

>A change of clothes

David HerbertLeave a comment

> I was wondering what to wear over my fig leaf this morning, when I came across this morning’s reading with Paul telling me to clothe myself with “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” – I’ve got a lifetime trying to squeeze myself into them. It’s a bit like Trinny and Susanna’s make-overs.

Then I came across a photo of the Vicar of Much Wenlock striding barefoot through his parish because he wants to follow the fashion set by St Francis. He says it puts him in touch with reality – He said: “I’m not suggesting people go around barefoot. The message is about needing to tread more lightly on the earth.” I remember a news report of a visit of a leader of an aborigine community who described how he had to put shoes on for the first time in his life when he came to Europe. He said how uncomfortable he felt and how he lost his sense of freedom.
I’ll try the compassion, kindness and gentleness outfit, but not bother with the matching accessories. I’ll just wear shoes!

>An old friend

David HerbertLeave a comment

>Friend Jim came by with a quote from the work of Laurens van der Post. I enjoyed his books when I read them. A lovely man, great story-teller and lover of humanity. I particulalry remember reading one of his books on a train journey at a time of bereavement, and remember noticing feeling so much better at the end of the journey. Not many writers can be so inspirational.

The quote:

Jung believed that the unique achievement of Western Europe, particularly Christian Europe, was the creation of the individual who would be sufficiently individual and integrated to take the burdens of his community and the world upon himself, to resist this collectivization of the spirit.- he goes on to say that he felt that it was the failure of this in Germany that allowed Hitler to rise to power unchallenged.

And another one from his intriguing solemn requiem (based on the Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse) by the editor of Feather Fall:

Gradually I have formed the impression, now a certainty, that Laurens van der Post is a member of a vast family which constitutes a community of spirit and heart that has existed throughout our history. Like those wells in the desert that are so difficult to find and so far apart, yet are linked beneath the ground and combine invisibly to quench one’s thirst, this vast and ever growing family of fellow-travellers is the company in which, step by step, century by century, we can all join in the ultimate quest, following the flight of the great white bird of truth, ready in heart and mind for its eventual feather fall.

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence was a film based on two of Laurens’s books which describe his experience asa japanese prisoner of war where he gained a reputation for building up the morale of people of many different nationalities. here’s the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

>Little and Large

David HerbertLeave a comment

>Size isn’t everything – but it’s important when you’re small fry. We have one parish – two churches – one larger, the other smaller in an unequal partnership. It’s hard for those representing small St Peter’s in any meeting with those representing large St Andrew’s. Attention is invariably focussed on big brother, even though there is a genuine love and regard for little brother.

When big cheese meets small fry, small fry usually feels belittled. But – big BUT -when small fry’s eyes meet God’s s/he wins the prize every time.

So small fry, don’t resent the status of little brother – and big brother BEWARE. “Unless you change and become as a little child, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) and “Consider your own calling, friends. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God”. There are so many stories in the Bible where the last is first and the greatest is the least.
Look at big brother and little brother in the story of the prodigal son – big brother is the one who is shut out because of his self-righteous jealousy.

Swing Low Sweet Charity

David HerbertLeave a comment

>Chewing over the phrase “charity begins at home” (it always sticks in my throat!) my mind went to “Swing low sweet charity” (must have been watching too much rugby over the weekend!) Since 1988 Swing Low Sweet Chariot has been the anthem of the England Rugby Union supporters. The song has a long history – from being sung by Afro-Americans to being a pretty obscene drinking song (about which I know so little!)

According to my friend Wikipedia, the song was composed by a native American slave, Wallis Willis around 1862. He also wrote “Steal away to Jesus”. Unbeknown to Rugby Union fans both the songs have hidden references to the Underground Railroad by which many slaves escaped to freedom.

“Swing low” refers to the escape “conductors” going down south to get their “passengers”. “Sweet chariot” was the carriage to “carry me home” to freedom. “Looking over Jordan” refers to the rivers Ohio and Mississippi beyond which is freedom. There was no physical railroad – but the slaves used the language of the railroad as code to help slaves escape. The Underground Railroad consisted of meeting points, secret routes, transportation, safe houses, and assistance provided by abolitionist sympathizers – who were the “conductors”. The churches were involved in this underground movement through which, some estimate, up to 100,000 slaves found their escape.

How many rugby fans are freedom fighters I wonder? It might make them think again if they were to sing the song standing in the shoes and chains of slaves.

Saint Patrick’s Day

David HerbertLeave a comment

>Good to meet friends Roddy Evans and Jim Lynn from Belfast on St Patrick’s Day, 10 years since the Good Friday Agreement. They have come over to take part in a series we have called Living Hope. Both have played their part in the peace process in Northern Ireland and seeing beyond revenge. They are both living hope. Roddy is Anglo-Irish and Jim is Roman Catholic, so I guess what was inspiring was not just their talks but their friendship which is based in their shared membership of the Clonard Bible Study group.
This prayer is supposed to be from St Patrick:
May the Strength of God guide us.
May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us.
May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us.
May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Angels of God guard us.- Against the snares of the evil one.
May Christ be with us!May Christ be before us!May Christ be in us,Christ be over all! May Thy Grace, Lord,Always be ours,This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.

>Pearls

David HerbertLeave a comment

>Good authors gift us with pearls. Here are some pearls polished and presented by Timothy radcliffe from my reading today – What is the Point of being a Christian?
How about this?

  • As fish were made to swim in water, human beings were made to thrive in the truth (p121)
  • When Wittgenstein was asked how philosophers should greet each other, he replied ‘Take your time.’ (p123)
  • We come to see people as lovable because we see other people loving them. (p124)

and then Radcliffe uses this story. “one day a rabbi asked his students, ‘How can you tell that night has ended and the day is returning? One student suggested, ‘When you can see clearly that an animal in the distance is a lion and not a leopard.’ ‘No’, said the rabbi. ‘It is when you can look on the face of another person and see that woman or man is your sister or brother. Because until you are able to do so, no matter what time of day it is, it is still night.'”