Living Wittily

Julian of Norwich and mile high apple pie

Ever since I came across this modern icon of Julian of Norwich and her contemplative cat (which bears an uncanny resemblance to Gizmo Gordon), I've enjoyed occasionally setting it as my desktop background. Not wonderful art, but it does capture something of the crisp clarity with which this woman theologian thought and wrote about the revelations of divine love she had received.

Several years ago I was invited to teach a course on Julian and her remarkable book in New Hampshire, New England. It was February and the temperatures were between 6 degrees and -25 degrees. The students were a mixed group of mature, persistently curious, hungry-to-learn, Christian, cultured folk from the villages and hamlets around Hanover, New Hampshire - they were a joy to teach, and fun to be with. They came on three consecutive all day Saturdays, on one day through a blizzard. And as we thought about the world, our lives and God, Julian the medieval contemplative became a favourite source of wise optimism. Her sense of God as 'our courteous Lord', and of God's purposes as ensuring 'all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well', provided a strong sub-structure from which we explored the spirituality of divine love in a broken world.

And then to walk out in the snow, wrapped up in layers of wool and other heat preserving fibres, enjoying the cold because we knew we would soon be warm - I've never forgotten the friendship and conversations, and am still in touch with one or two of the folk.

So now when I read Julian I think of blue skies, white snow, millions of trees, praline flavoured latte, and mile-high apple pie! Oh the ascetic life!

haute cuisine = hot food

Having just had a routine cholesterol check I thought I’d pen a panegyric in praise of porridge. Forget tasteless glutinous gunge – people queue for this stuff at Mash (haute cuisine establishment!) in London!

The medical benefits are universally recognised. Here's a quote:

"Soluble fibre which is found in fruit, vegetables, peas, beans and of course, oats, helps reduce blood cholesterol. It’s a complex process but, put simply, think of rolled oats as tiny sponges in your body that soak up cholesterol".

Well it must be good if Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates, Jane Fonda and Tim Henman (oh, and Wallace and Gromit) are celebrity consumers.

Roald Amundsen even took it to the South Pole – I wonder if Scott did – would be a good advert for Scott’s Porridge Oats.(Picture on left illustrates the export version - American spelling! Picture also shows shot putt being thrown over cliff?!)

Anyway – Sheila and I have porridge at least a couple of times a week. Apart from all the above pluses, it’s supposed to release seritonin, which helps you feel less depressed by the long dark, wet, windy, dreich West of Scotland winters. But making porridge has a down side - Who cleans the pot afterwards? Because when a porridge pot cools it develops a thick gelatinous coating which, when it comes to washing the pot…….yeuk!

Scouring out the porridge pot,
Round and round and round.

Out with all the scraith and scoopery,
Lift the eely ooly droopery,
Chase the glubbery slubbery gloopery ,
Round and round and round.

Out with all the doleful dithery,
Ladle out the slimey slithery,
Hunt and catch the hithery thithery ,
Round and round and round.

Out with all the ubbly gubbly,
On the stove it burns so bubbly,
Use a spoon and use it doubly,
Round and round and round.

For a fact sheet on the dietary benefits of porridge, Scotland's contribution to health food, see http://www.flahavans.com/home/facts.htm