Tendring Topics..........on Line
A Religious Revival?
I published my pre-Christmas blog with some misgivings. It was concerned with Christ’s Nativity. I knew that the majority of my blog viewers were unlikely to be Christian. Of those who were, there would undoubtedly be some who considered it to be blasphemous to question the historical accuracy of any part of the accounts of this event as recorded in St Matthew’s and St. Luke’s Gospels. It was possible that I had succeeded in offending everybody! On the 21st December, after the first full day of publication, I checked on the statistics rather nervously. It would not have been surprise to find that viewer figures had fallen like a stone!
On the contrary, there were over 150 views – the highest daily number I had ever recorded! Each day until 25th December, there were over 100 views, by previous standards an exceptionally high number. I concluded that the Nativity story had a cross-cultural appeal. Non-Christians, whether adherents of other faiths or having no faith at all, could relate to the story of a child destined for greatness, whose coming was heralded by angels yet was born of humble, temporarily homeless, parents in a cattle shed, with a cattle feeding-trough as a cradle. That lowly shepherds, despised by both the wealthy and by the country’s spiritual leaders, were the first to visit and pay homage to the baby Jesus, followed by wealthy Magi with magnificent gifts from a distant land, and that the Holy Family had then to flee for their lives, seeking asylum in the land of Egypt, added to the story’s appeal.
My blog has a scattered readership, world-wide. In the United Kingdom Exeter Wakefield , York , St. Albans and from scores of other Cathedrals and humbler churches all over England Scotland Enfield
Could it be that we are going to see a revival of the Christian Values for which Prime Minister David Cameron recently appealed? I hope so – but I also hope that they are the true Christian values declared by the founder of the Christian faith, not a hotchpotch of ‘thou shalt nots’ designed to keep the poor in their place so that the more materially fortunate can live in peace and comfort; ‘God bless the Squire and his relations. They keep us in our proper stations’. Such attitudes led to the Church of England being described as The Conservative Party at Prayer and inspired nineteenth century Anglican Priest Charles Kingsley, author of ‘Hereward the Wake’, ‘Westward Ho!’ and ‘The Water Babies’, to declare that, ‘We have made of religion an opium for the people’ (yes, I do know that Karl Marx said something similar. He and Kingsley were contemporaries and I believe that Kingsley said it first!)
If David Cameron really wants us all to adopt Christian values he could (as well as reminding us that we shouldn’t covet, steal, murder or commit adultery) recall that it is as hard for a wealthy man to get into Heaven as it is for a camel to get through the eye of a needle! He could perhaps urge the 17 millionaire members of his government to shed their wealth in their own long-term interest as well as ours, and perhaps make it easier for his friends among the bankers, newspaper proprietors and other super wealthy to attain heavenly bliss, by changing the income tax system to ensure that they pay at least as high a proportion of their income in taxes as the poor have to.
A Memorable Christmas
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| It was with younger son Andy, daughter-in-law Marilyn, granddaughter Jo and her partner Siobhan that I enjoyed my Christmas dinner. I am more than blessed in my two sons (at times I can see something of their mother in both of them!), in my daughters-in-law and in my grandchildren. They all conspired very successfully to make sure that Christmas 2011 would be filled with happy memories for me to cherish throughout the year to come..
My very action-packed and enjoyable Christmas break included a traditional family Christmas dinner with all the trimmings (including a flaming Christmas pudding), several family get-togethers, a visit to a cinema to see the latest Sherlock Holmes release, a trip into the countryside to visit Westmill, a delightful Hertfordshire village that had been the scene of at least one episode of 'Foyles War', a visit to Kew Gardens where I was able to borrow an electric mobility scooter with which I could explore the enormous glass houses and - finally - a performance of The Nutcracker at what was the Millennium Dome but is now the O2 Arena. And, of course, there was the Christmas Eucharist mentioned earlier in this blog.
I enjoyed every minute of it but I have to say that My most vivid memory (and the one that I can see giving me occasional future nightmares!) was of a near-disaster that occurred on Boxing Day. I stayed at the Marriott Hotel, Waltham Abbey. Just off the M25 it was relatively convenient for the homes of both my sons (I find the stairs in both their homes rather difficult and appreciate the fact that in a hotel my early rising habit doesn’t inconvenience anyone else) Pete, Nick's girlfriend Romy, and I in the Tropical Glass House at Kew However my early rising was one of the factors that led to near-disaster! On Boxing Day, despite having not gone to bed till after midnight, I was wide awake at 6.00 am and decided to go to the en suite bathroom for my usual wash, shave and shower. The hotel breakfast wouldn’t be available till 8.00 am so I had plenty of time. I completed my wash and shave and prepared for my shower. It was an ‘over-bath’ one in which the user had to stand in the bath. I had used it the morning before without incident. This time I managed to get one foot over the rim and into the bath. As I was getting the other foot over, the foot in the bath slipped. I fell unceremoniously into it!. |
I hadn’t hurt myself in the fall and all I had to do was to. get up and turn on the shower mixer. But that I couldn’t do. My 90 year old muscles were simply incapable of lifting me from a horizontal to a vertical position and allowing me either to get on with the shower or step out of the bath. Had I been able to get onto my knees I might have made it but the bath wasn’t wide enough to allow me to turn round to do this!
I was reluctant to pull the alarm cord, not because I am easily embarrassed – I am not. I do though have a firmly rooted dislike of looking ridiculous. I was well aware that lying naked on my back on the bottom of an empty bath, ‘ridiculous’ is exactly how I would look!
However, as I realized that my struggles to escape were getting feebler; I overcame my inhibitions and tugged on the cord. A light came on indicating that my cry for help had registered. With commendable promptness a young man from ‘Reception’ appeared at the door of the bathroom. He grasped the situation at once and tried to help me raise myself – to no avail! He summoned ‘back-up’!
Another young man appeared. This one promptly removed his shoes and climbed onto and astride the bath. He took my hands and pulled while his colleague pushed from behind. Together and with whatever strength I could still muster I slowly regained the vertical position. Shakily and with the help of my two saviours, I stepped out of the bath. No, I assured them, I didn’t want them to call an ambulance. I wasn’t even bruised. I had pulled a few muscles in my struggles but otherwise I was fine.
It was a happy ending – but it might not have been! When my younger son Andy had brought me back to the hotel the previous night, he had glanced into the bathroom. There he had noticed that the alarm cord above the bath had been wound round a high-level bathroom fitting, effectively putting it out of reach of anyone sitting or lying in the bath. He had methodically unwound it and brought it back into use.
I had thought that he was just being unnecessarily ‘fussy’ but by his action he may well have saved my life. Had the alarm not been available my predicament would not have been discovered until my other son had arrived to pick me up at about 10.00 am, or the cleaning lady had put in an appearance at about the same time – I would have been trapped there for at least three hours!
Progress?
Just before Christmas I received from a blog reader in his late fifties, a very gloomy assessment of the development of British society during his lifetime.
It’s the end of the year; one of the times when one looks back on what has changed. Perhaps it is just because I am getting older but I can see very few things to be pleased about, not just in the last 12 months, but in the last 30 years! I feel that in so many ways, society is poorer – even if we are better off financially.
Of all the changes I have seen, I would rate Central Heating, reliable motor cars and the reduction in smoking as the most positive ones since my childhood. Against that though there is the rise of gang culture, drug and alcohol abuse and anti-social behaviour – an unknown expression in my childhood. Internet and Out-Of-Town shopping are replacing local shops and high streets. A great many school leavers who are barely able to read, write or add up, spend a ridiculous amount of time watching hundreds of TV stations and playing Computer Games. No wonder they become overweight! Young girls are being prematurely sexualised by the new celebrity culture, overtly sexual advertising and semi-naked pop stars. There is a general move of the centre ground of politics away from the principle of welfare and public services available to all, to the principle of each for him or her self tempered with Victorian philanthropy.
When I think about the technological changes, I can’t help thinking that in the 60s no one was terribly dissatisfied with the fact that phones lived in phone boxes, or were bulky and expensive things in the house or office. I don’t think anyone had a big problem with music being stored on a disk the size of a dinner plate, and yearned for a time when the entire collection – and the player - would be the size of a match box. Maybe it’s just me!
Perhaps it is. I find that I do agree with every word written above (despite having been a car owner/driver in the 1950s and ‘60s, I had forgotten, until I read that email, how thoroughly unreliable most cars were in those days!)
However I am over thirty years older than my correspondent and my memory goes back to the late 1920s and the 1930s. My home was a happy one but my memories also include unremitting discomfort. Winters were cold and dark with unheated bedrooms lino-covered floors and smoky, and draught-inducing open fires. I don’t suppose that anyone today under about 80 has ever experienced chapped hands and chilblains! Summers, without fridges and with lots of still-horsedrawn traffic, were marred by continuous fly infestation. A sticky fly-paper, festooned with trapped and dying flies hung, usually from the light fitting, in every working class sitting room and kitchen. Storing perishable food and milk could be a nightmare!
Today, without my trusty iron horse (mobility scooter) I would be completely housebound. Without my mobile phone, my laptop and the internet, I’d be cut off from my scattered friends and family, and without a tv and reliable radio (in the 1930s ‘wireless sets’ were anything but reliable!) I’d be bored out of my mind. There’s a great deal that I don’t like about the 21st Century but, especially for the old and disabled, it has its compensations. My correspondent may well remember nostalgically the days of his childhood and youth. I had loving and caring parents and I too have happy memories of my childhood years. In my old age though, I really wouldn't want to return to those days!
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