Missing Arthur Greaves
I thought about Arthur Greaves today. Arthur would know how to deal with an employer who did not listen to reason. A Birmingham man, Arthur worked in Taunton for a major department store chain which refused to recognise trade unions, so Arthur declared himself to be in a one man dispute with the company. Arthur and his family lived in …[continue reading …]
The fears of a child
The poet Louis McNiece was the son of a clergyman. His father was rector of the Church of Ireland parish of Carrickfergus in Co Antrim. The death of McNiece’s mother when he was young instilled a deep fearfulness in a five year old boy. He found found fear and terror in situations where other people might have found peace and …[continue reading …]
Trying to teach difficult stuff
Charlie was at least forty years my senior, though could never break through the decades of conditioning that told him that he should address the Rector as a schoolboy would address a schoolmaster. In the seven years in which I knew him, I was always, “Mr Poulton.” Occasionally, there would be anecdotes from his long years of memory, observations on …[continue reading …]
The old scams seem to work
There can be few people with email addresses who have not received at least an occasional email that seeks details that would allow the sender to defraud them. The “Spanish Hostage” scam is the oldest approach used (thus named because when it began two centuries ago people wrote letters claiming to be held hostage in Sapin and promising abundant reward …[continue reading …]
Inarticulacy
Of course, I knew where the River Brue was, anyone who travelled between Street and Glastonbury would know exactly where the River Brue was. As you cross the river on the A39, a roadside sign announces “Pomparles Bridge.” Apparently, the name derives from French for “perilous bridge.” There never seemed much that was perilous about the Brue, a shallow, gentle, …[continue reading …]
A Sermon for Sunday, 24th January 2021
“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.” Mark 1:14 Reading the Gospel today, it is important not just to read it, but to try to get inside the minds of the people who were there. These men Jesus meets alongside the Sea of Galilee aren’t men of the world, they aren’t much …[continue reading …]
Occupants of the Republic of Conscience
“Two arms the one length” is the English rendering of an Irish proverb. It means being empty-handed, carrying nothing, and arriving with nothing. It is a proverb used by Seamus Heaney in his poem From the Republic of Conscience. The poem, which appears in Heaney’s 1987 collection The Haw Lantern, was first commissioned and published in 1985 to mark the 25th …[continue reading …]
The day of the live gig will return!
On top of the bookshelf in my study, there is a pair of tickets for an Elvis Costello concert. The tickets are for Wednesday, 18th March 2020 and are unused. The onset of the pandemic caused the cancellation of the concert. Well, not the cancellation, but the postponement of the gig until a date to be confirmed. Ticket holders were …[continue reading …]
Still waiting
Sunlight shone through a gap in the curtains. The sound of a tractor passing the cottage told Maggie that it was later than she thought. Her clock had stopped at some point and she had not replaced it. Normally waking at the same time each morning, Maggie had felt that a new battery for the clock was not necessary. The …[continue reading …]