This is just a note, in the interests of completeness, that I have recently read the play - noting many have spent great efforts trying to interpret it, and probably in so doing have missed the point.
Therefore I do not offer any particular thoughts, other than the fact that the puzzle of the play, possibly the human condition, is captured, but not explained, in these 3 lines...
Estragon: Well, shall we go?
Vladimir: Yes, let's go
[They do not move]
Wednesday, 2 May 2018
Songs of the Spirit by Megan Daffen
Megan Daffen
provides us with a fresh translation of the Psalms, paired a 2-3 page
reflection. As with Sister Wendy’s The Art of Lent, while a “Lent”
book other that the final days you could follow these reflections at
any time of the year. I completely understand that labelling these a
Lent book will boost sales because people are particularly looking
for books for Lent, it is sad for those look outside of Lent are
likely to be put off by that branding.
The range of
emotions expressed in the Psalms are so rich, very truly all human
life is there. Yet we often risk failing to see the wood for the
trees – even where Psalms are a core part of liturgical life
In the reflections
Daffen helps unlock them, in a range of ways, providing some of the
historical context – when a Psalms is filled with rage at the
injustice of the world she explains, as far as we are able, what the
particular injustice was, but also, and perhaps more importantly, she
sets the emotions of the Psalms in a contemporary context.
The Art of Lent by Sister Wendy
This is a delightful
little book, providing a Painting and a short reflection for each day
of Lent (Sundays not included, of course). There are just enough
words to draw you into the picture and really encounter it.
Although it is a
Lent book, the week’s have themes such as Silence, Peace,
Confidence, and therefore I think it could be useful at any time of
the year, and indeed I think the reflections would be fully
accessible to non-Christians.
Some of the
Paintings are of Christian subjects, eg the Annunciation, however
these probably make up a smaller proportion of the total than you
would find in say the National Gallery. The choice of Hokusai’s
The Great Wave for Ash Wednesday set the tone for that. It is only
the final days, Maundy Thursday onwards, that directly reference the
events of the day in the Christian calendar.
Sunday, 29 April 2018
Out of Sorts by Sarah Bessey
That there are 20
tabs in this book in indicative of the fact that I liked it!
For example she
says…
“If our theology
doesn’t shift and change over our lifetimes, then I have to wonder
if we’re paying attention.”
“I had to learn
that taking the Bible seriously doesn’t mean taking everything
literally.” - I will save the rant about the Bible being too
important to be taken literally, but if you ask nicely I can provide
it offline.
In embracing
questions she notes that Children question everything, but “They’re
not asking to be cool or to push back on the establishment or to
prove anyone wrong or to grind an axe or make a point… [they] ask
because they want an answer.” I.e. we should never be afraid of
questions…
And what are those
questions… in response to an Old Testament story one of her
children asks “Is God the bad guy in this one? Or the good guy?”
The classical debate on the problem of evil expressed in a dozen
words…
As the counter point
to so much exuberance in the Church she says that she is “learning
that it is okay to feel sad and to be angry, to long for rescue and
redemption, to pray and shout and cry, to weep with those who weep.”
A theme already notes by Kenda Creasy Dean, in so many Churches if
you are sad you have no place.
The ability to speak
of the criticality of faith, at the same time as being honest that
the Church often is a barrier rather than an enabler of that faith is
refreshing. Most Christian writers write from the starting point that
the Church is a full and effective embodiment of the Kingdom of God.
For those of us that have been damaged by the Church, it is really
hard to take such writers seriously. Bessey offers us some balance...
Stations of the Soul by Joan Keogh
I have an ongoing
fascination with the Stations of the Cross, not just as a devotional
practice but also as an artistic challenge. They require 14 imagines,
working as a group and yet having individual integrity.
It was William
Fairbanks Forest Stations, in the nave of Lincoln Cathedral, that got
me hooked – they are a true masterpiece (or maybe masterpieces).
The booklet Stations
of the Soul is perhaps unusual because both the imagines and the
written reflections are provided by Joan Keogh.
Keogh has captured
that balance of giving the Stations a common format but a distinct
character – a welcome addition to a long tradition.
Waterfalls of Stars, My Ten Years on the Island of Skomer by Rosanne Alexander
I found this book
via a review in Planet Magazine, but I will be honest when it arrived
at 350 pages of pretty small print I think I let out a sigh – was
there really that much to say about 10 years spent on a tiny island?
I share this because while I picked it up fairly reluctantly, having
picked it up I found that I couldn’t put it down.
Rosanne’s arrival
on the island is a bit of a scramble, including a shot gun wedding,
and one is worried that this will turn out to be an epic of regret
and frustration. But once on the island Rosanne rapidly falls in love
with it.
She provides an
account, a generally positive account, of isolation that is almost
impossible today. They have no electricity, no phone, only brief
radio communication via the Coastguard. Later wardens of Skomer now
have electricity, connectivity. Does “keeping in touch” lessen
or underscore the separation, possible loneliness – and does it
provide a distraction from the deep connection with the island and
its wildlife that was so central to the joy Rosanne found on the
island.
There is a poetic
quality to the descriptions of the island, the sea, the various
animals, and the emotional responses Rosanne has to it all. She has
real skill as a writer, the subject matter is rich but she draws you
into its very heart.
She also has the
lightness of touch to play on the humour of many situations, for
example almost all the anecdotes involving Wellington the goat.
But throughout the
account there are moments that will make you weep, such as the oil
spills impact on the seals and sea birds, gut wrenching in the shared
sense of helplessness, hopelessness. Or their recovery of the body of
a drowned fisherman.
Alongside these are
more intimate, but not less powerful, moments – when they have to
re-home “The Raven”, an injured bird they had hoped to nurse back
to health and a return to the wild, but it was not to be.
As they prepare his
departure “He was extraordinarily quiet and well behaved as he was
transferred to the small cage. Perhaps subdued would have been a
better word. He was such an intelligent bird that I couldn’t help
wondering how much he understood of what was happening.” and then
“’Hello’ he said quietly, for the last time.” Hello was the
only word The Raven had learned, that the moment of separation is
marked with this incongruous word broke me. It probably doesn’t
make sense quoted like this but in the flow of the account you are
riding the ebb and flow of emotion with Rosanne.
And ultimately we
come to their departure from Skomer, in a mirror to her arrival, it
is forces beyond her control that determine the timing – she has
time to say goodbye, but no choice over the need to say goodbye.
You are left with
the sense of not having read about life on Skomer but having lived
it. I don’t think there is high praise to give to a writer.
Regarding the Dead: Human Remains in the British Museum Ed. A Flecter, D Antoine, & JD Hill
As “Research
Publication” this is aimed at a scholarly / professional audience
rather than the general reader.
The preface sates
that “The motivation for publishing this book is to emphasize that
for a museum of any size, it is important to separate out issues of
repatriation or display from those of conservation, documentation and
research in relation to human remains.”
The various chapters
give a good coverage of “what to do” in terms of professional
practice but I guess I was expecting a stronger engagement in the
“why”.
This is touched only
a little in Jody Joy’s chapter on bog bodies in the exploration of
the difference between them and skeletons – but while there might
be an instinctive emotional response to a body that is distinct to
bones alone whether this should be carried over to an actual
difference is treatment could have been explored more fully.
In the same chapter
it is noted that surveys show that the overwhelming majority of
visitors to the British Museum expect, and want, to see human remains
on display. But how to display various types of human remains in ways
the encourage a respectful encourage with them is a key challenge
(perhaps even more so in the age of the selfie – is it ok to take a
selfie with a skeleton, mummy, a bog body?).
For some of the more
recent remains, especially those collected with colonial contexts,
there is likely to be cultural continuity between the individuals
whose remains the Museum holds and living communities and there is
some exploration about how the values and wishes of those communities
are incorporated into the way the remains are stored, displayed, and
studied, including in some cases the decisions to “repatriate”
the remains to communities. But beyond these examples there seemed
to be little or no engagement with how the beliefs and values of the
individuals whose remains the Museum holds might impact its practice,
and the older the remains are the less of a factor this seems to
become. There are some generalised notions of “respect”, of not
objectifying the remains (but I am not sure how successful that is in
reality), but are these enough?
Given the immense
scientific and cultural value the study of human remains holds, it is
absolutely right that Museum and other institutions have and make use
of them, and this book is a welcome insight into the engagement with
the challenges that bring, and maybe some of the philosophical
questions I have pointed to above are outside its brief but I think
they need to be wrestled with.
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