I was taught Latin for four years between the ages of eight and twelve, and although the schoolboy doggerel of the time said, “Latin is a language as dead as dead can be/ It killed the ancient Romans and now it’s killing me!”, it actually was one of the most valuable contributions to my education. So when I came across the motto of the Church ...
My granddaughter is currently in her final year of study for her undergraduate degree and she will often ask me for feedback on essays she’s written or opinion pieces she’s submitted. She will then compare my feedback with that of her professors. Constantly she wants to know, “how am I doing?” There’s an old dictum in business that says, “you don’t ...
Back in the dinosaur days of the 1990’s there was a popular song “From a Distance” that grated on me every time I heard it (on my steam-driven radio) because the lyrics implied that God was far away and was not really interested in the minutiae of our lives — “God is watching us, from a distance”. But that clearly is not congruent ...
I remember as a teenager browsing in a bookstore and coming across a title, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” written by a Jewish Rabbi. It is a question that comes up over and over again, and I am often asked to give my opinion on the subject.
My answer is always, “your free will” which most people don’t want to hear, because ...
As I accumulate birthdays I am fond of telling people “getting older is not for wimps!” If we are privileged to reach advancing age it goes without saying that certain challenges become inevitable as youthful capability fades. No one promised us that life would get easier! I choose to accept the tradeoff of more birthdays for the joy of enjoying ...
There is a famous placcard issued by the UK Government during World War II which says “Remain Calm and Carry On”. The bright red backgound, stylized crown and white lettering has become a pervasive meme in social media for difficult and/or troubling circumstances.
Perseverance is also a central theme in Christian life. The journey ...
I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of hearing or reading a word for the first time, or perhaps one we’ve forgotten for a long time, and then it suddenly seems to appear in every piece of media we consume. So it was for me this last week with the simple word “power” — Political Power, Military Power, Solar Power, Girl Power,… and on and on. The ...