I’m often given books as presents, and sometimes I don’t want to read them. A few years ago I was given Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty First Century. And although I would like to have read it, I didn’t actually want to open it. And it sat reproachfully unopened on the shelves for aContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 152”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Through a glass darkly – 151
The days go by, each day getting a little longer. Passion Week began with an appointment with the diabetic nurse. continued through a series of early morning services at Newington Trinity, and ended with a walk of witness from Mayfield Church to Nicholson Square. And a sombre service of Tenebrae on Good Friday evening. DuringContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 151”
Through a glass darkly – 150
I’m ambivalent about mountains. On the one hand I’m very acrophobic around bridges, high buildings, and mountain roads: as a child I baulked at going up the Monument in London, more recently I used to be nervous about driving across the Forth Road Bridge, and driving over the Viaduct de Millau is the stuff ofContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 150”
Through a glass darkly – 149
The amaryllis on the dining table has come out in a big way. And we’ve been out too; we took a Car Club car out along the coast in East Lothian. I couldn’t get my left leg under the steering wheel, so Susie had to drive. After a standard trip to the charity shop, weContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 149”
Through a glass darkly – 148
The good news is that the magnolia is about to come out in the front garden. I’m reluctant to write about Donald Trump. Seeing him on the television news fills me with revulsion. [I feel the same way about Benjamin Netanyahu.] Back in October 2020, when I had started writing this blog, I addressed theContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 148”
Through a glass darkly – 147
When I was growing up, alpha was the first letter of the Greek alphabet. And the self-appellation of the risen Christ in Revelation 22. But for the past few decades it is best known as an extraordinarily successful course in Christian apologetics. Launched and resourced and promoted by that phenomenon of a church, Holy Trinity,Continue reading “Through a glass darkly – 147”
Through a glass darkly – 146
We are just back from a week down south, with the children and grand-children, and I have been re-reading Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, published in 1945 the year I was born. I guess this book has been around all my life. There was certainly a paperback copy in our house in Wimbledon Park Road, theContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 146”
Through a glass darkly – 145
Hedgehogs have never been a major part of my life. In our early days in Paris, Susie and I had a hedgehog that regularly visited our [first floor] garden. In the very hot summer of 1976 we fed the animal with stale baguette and milk [a big mistake – See below]. And the hedgehog leftContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 145”
Through a glass darkly – 144
Trump’s re-election is a mystery to me and to many European social democrats. [I would say ‘liberals’, but I am no longer sure what the word means.] We all know that he is a a self-obsessed egomaniac. And that he is a serial liar. And that he is a serial abuser of women. And aContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 144”
Through a glass darkly – 143
My diary says that we are going to Grenoble this week, for another locum job. But we’re not going. Which I’m sorry about. Partly because St Marc’s is a diverse and welcoming congregation. Partly because Grenoble is an attractive city, surrounded by snow-topped mountains. [A city where our daughter Joanna lived for a year backContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 143”
Through a glass darkly 