-
Empathy, Sympathy and Compassion.
Much is made of empathy – the ability to understand what another is experiencing. Yet, good torturers have empathy. They know exactly what their victims are going through. Much is made of sympathy – feeling sorry for what another is experiencing. Yet, we all sometimes walk past beggars and the homeless with an averted gaze…
-
Bob Almighty – Part 3 (of 3)
So when I was young I went on my personal pilgrimage to all the religions I could get my hands on. I love the human experience of the divine. Elephant gods who move obstacles ? Mantras and inner peace? What’s not to love? I wrote about that here . The result of all that was freeing…
-
Bob Almighty – Part 2 (of 3)
Underneath the circus of my outer me is a contemplative man. Actually, more than contemplative I’m chatty with God. I have always felt God’s presence. Sometimes near, sometimes far, sometimes jumping out from behind a tree and shouting ‘Gotcha!’ And poor old God has had to listen to me as I ask for things and…
-
Bob Almighty – Part 1 (of 3)
There was a life-size, gruesome Jesus in my local church when I was a child. Hanging from above the altar with an unforgiving gaze. He was the Jesus of the Crown of Thorns, barely alive on the crucifix with the spear wound in his side. If it had been today and that image were in…
-
And a one, a two, a one-two-three-four…..
The first thing I think about in the morning is how I can hunt down the progeny of the bastard who invented alarm clocks. Then I listen to the birds. You have no idea, dear Reader, how birdsong fills me with joy. But today something strange happened. I was woken by the sound of a…
-
It’s a Love Thing
We walk along the road and so many things grab at our arms demanding our attention. Or we zombie the ambience with earphones. Art galleries, sightseeing sites, concerts, restaurants, must-sees, must-dos, don’t-stop-me-nows. And so our lives becomes the curation of selfies and dull-as-dishwater dinner conversations about where we went, what we saw and what we…
-
The Sweet Silver Song of a Lark
There are many famous football teams but when the fans of a team are equally famous you know there is something special happening. Such is the case with the fans of Liverpool FC. They are famous for singing the song ‘Walk On’ by Gerry and the Pacemakers and for being such lovers of the beautiful…
-
Hominem unius libri timeo
I believe that ‘scripture’ (which is a posh word for ‘writing’) can be dangerous. It can be dangerous because (a) it is written by humans and (b) it is interpreted by humans. And humans are, dear Reader, a very dangerous species indeed. Someone once said that if there were no religion, good people would still…
-
It Makes me Wonder
180,000 people in a field at night. The smell of woodsmoke from the bonfires around the periphery. A television camera picks out a raised arm with a burning torch and the image is projected to a massive backdrop. And then he starts to sing. There’s a lady who’s sure… August 11th 1979 in Knebworth…
-
The Kaleidoscope Colours of God
As someone who comes from a monotheist tradition, I do find myself a little envious of religions which have a spectrum of Gods. It just seems like more fun. Of course, we do let ourselves go a bit when it comes to the Virgin Mary. We have Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima…