Living Wittily

The Snow Leopard - the most magnificent of the great cats

I don't think you can have too many enthusiasms. Curiosity, wonder, pleasure, admiration, intellectual and emotional satisfaction, aesthetic insight, the joy of looking, gazing, seeing, taking in, revelling in - there is probably a thesaurus of descriptors for that human responsiveness to that which is beyond ourselves, and draws us towards it to be touched, enriched, made to pay attention, and somewhere out of our depths comes gratitude and the awareness that what we are encountering is blessing.

That's how I feel about the snow leopard. When Peter Matthiessen's book was published 30 something years ago, about his journey to Nepal to try to see the snow leopard in the wilds, I read it and discovered a world of which I knew nothing. It's the story of his journey towards a healing of the heart after the loss of his wife - the seeking of the snow leopard almost a parallel search for the one he had lost. It is in my own canon of books, a great book.

So the other day when aol posted this picture of snow leopard cubs, I was taken back to the summer I read Matthiessen's book for the first time. And the picture shows why that first paragraph of this post is struggling to define and articulate adequately, the wild beauty that inhabits this world of ours.

The weekend that flew past full of good things

This post is a day late - yesterday it seemed more important to try to make some sense of events surrounding the actions of the Scottish Justice Minister and the furore about prisoner release, compassion, and the ends of justice.

Anyway. Had a great weekend in Aberdeen, and for multifarious reasons.

Friday evening went to see our niece Gael, in the production of The Chorus Line at the Aberdeen Arts Centre. Never seen this musical before. The combination of a theatre that is big enough for a sense of occasion while allowing the audience to remain intimately involved with the action, a hugely enthusiastic amateur cast, and some exceptionally good acting and musical skill on the part of several of the leads, made it a very enjoyable night. One soliloquy, by a dancer trying to explain his experience of discovering he was gay, his own inner confusion about his identity, the prejudices of class-mates and parents, the anguish and aspirations of a young man simply longing to be accepted and affirmed as who he is - it was beautifully and convincingly acted, and at a quite different level from the rest of the production. I can't help feeling that such dramatic expression and imaginative construal of human experience has its own validity as a contribution to the ongoing moral debates surrounding sexual mores, personal identity and theological ethics. Imagination and creative art possess their own distinctive and essential style of moral discourse.

Saturday morning had a long walk right along the Aberdeen front, most of it at the water's edge on the beach, and balanced the calorie burn with a bacon roll and coffee at the Inversnecky Cafe, sitting outside, in short sleeved short, wearing sunglasses - in Aberdeen!

Made time on the Staurday afternoon to listen to the Hamilton - Aberdeen game which we won 3-0.

Had a Saturday evening meal with friends that brought the day to a close with a feeling of stuffed contentment - food and friendship, the one enriching the other.

Led worship and preached at Crown Terrace,(the oldest of the Baptist Churches in Aberdeen), caught up with lots of friends and met some of the new folk around the church.

Successfully planned and executed a pre-arranged meet between Perth and Dundee, with a family travelling to Aberdeen from Edinburgh. Did I say we met at Glendoick Garden centre which does amazing iced gingerbread loaf, cut in three quarter inch slices?

Major roadworks at Castlecary and predicted 40 minute delays. So decided to go via Kippen and Drymen, dropping down into Milngavie. It was a wet misty day, with black and grey clouds, occasionally pierced by defiant but fleeting shafts of sunlight, the distant mountains only occasionally visible as slightly darker shadows lurking on the horizon. Hate to admit it, but there are times when Scotland looks impressive and almost other-wordly when heavy rain acts as a darkened filter over some of the finest scenery anywhere. (The photo isn't mine - it's courtesy of Glasgow University medics hillwalking group).

Now for the rest of the week I need to eat porridge for cholesterol control, and up the exercise regime to compensate for a justifiably indulgent weekend.

Holiday time -

As of very early morning we are en route to Lake Garda to the historic beautiful Malcesine. The photo says it all. Our usual walking holiday, full of vigorous, high altitude, muesli-fortified, walking boot equipped, tyrolean hiking, this year gives way to the more sedate, leisurely lakeside walks and sails to and fro across the lake - ice cream, pizza, medieval castles, sunshine, shorts, ice cream, pizza, coffee shops, cable cars, open-decked ferries, sun cream, ice cream....and did I mention pizza???

Blogging suspended till I return to the real world - whatever else a holiday is it's an alternative world....of ice cream, pizza......Aye. OK. I'll stop talking about it. (Wonder what flavours, though.....and extra toppings...???)

We intend to include as many of the synonyms below as we can - and to prove the definition true.

Holiday definition: leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure.

Synonyms:

anniversary, break, celebration, feast, festival, festivity, fete, fiesta, gala, gone fishing, holy day, jubilee, layoff, leave, liberty, long weekend, recess, red-letter day, saint's day, vacation

Strawberry tarts, IRN BRU and related educational experiences!

Yesterday Glasgow was basking in Spring sunshine, which made for a good day with our visiting friends from Manchester. After an unintended circular tour of Paisley our visitors arrived at the College in time for coffee and strawberry tarts (illustrated).

Stuart then introduced us to Scottish culture and the underlying implications for understanding the context of mission in contemporary Scotland, - and did so by using the blue and orange cuckoo Irn Bru advert. This was quality exposition of a foundational contemporary text in Scottish cultural expression - nae kiddin, it wiz so!

Lunch - then we reflected together on the prayers, politics and pacifism of George Macleod of Iona, which took us into a wider discussion of the importance yet difficulty of building deep levels of personal and spiritual formation into an educational process that is modular, intense and inhospitable to slow organic growth of spirit.

Then off to Kelvingrove where we were all free to follow our artistic, historic, gastric preferences either in the art galleries, the historic galleries or the very fine cafe. A walk around Kelvingrove Park, then to our Italian Restaurant (Sarti's in Bath Street which we are happy to recommend), where we met up with Isabella (SBC events manager and all round fixer), and where our guests made us their guests - in a Gospel reversal of hospitality.

In recognition of significant calorie acquisition, we then strolled into the centre to George's Square and inadvertently gate-crashed the ad hoc parties of the Spanish football supporters here for the Uefa Cup final tonight at Hampden. Drawn as if by some not alttogether inexplicable magnet we drifted to Borders (Books and Coffee), before strolling back, saying goodbye and heading for home and bed.

What a good, full, satisfying day - laughter and seriousness, food and friendship, conversation and culture, time to pay adequate attention to the importance of what we do with our lives but also time to remember not to take ourselves too seriously. This was partnership in the Gospel and friendship for the sake of it - and something to be repeated. An invitation to Manchester is already tabled.....where's my diary??

Dr Sean Winter, NT Tutor and member of the Manchester staff at Northern College, will stay over until tonight, Wednesday 16th. At our invitation Sean will be at the Central Baptist Church in Paisley - 7.30 p.m. when he will deliver the 2007 Whitley Lecture: 'More Light and Truth? Biblical Interpretation in Covenantal Perspective.'

Everybody welcome - some serious and important theological thinking going on here, so feel free to come and enjoy a celebration and affirmation of theology done well as a service to the Kingdom.

A hundred Thousand Welcomes

We are sharing today with friends and colleagues from Luther King House, the home of Northern Baptist College, Manchester. Our friends are on staff retreat and are staying at Gartmore House up in Stirlingshire, but they will spend today with us in Paisley and Glasgow to get a feel for what we are trying to do about theological education and ministry formation in Scotland.

Stuart and I will share some of our thinking about doing and teaching theology in the Scottish cultural context; Stuart through a brilliant (I don't use superlatives as redundant flattery!) paper on post-modern cultural features as they impinge on theological and social awareness; I will use the prayers of George Macleod to open up discussion about the formation and development of prayer in ministry, its rootedness in the doctrines of Trinitarian love, creation and redemption, and its expression as a form of ministry that engages with political and social realities.

  Then lunch - after which we take a trip to the most popular visitor attraction in Scotland, the magnificent Kelvingrove Art Gallery and we will spend time enjoying the creative genius, varied beauty, emotional intensity, of great art.

Because it can't be done in a quick jaunt, we will explore the delights of the Gallery cafe before continuing the enjoyment of Glasgow's finest cultural centre - and it's free. The day will finish with a shared meal (Italian) and good conversation amongst friends and fellow theological journeyers. 

To all who are coming to be with us, a hundred thousand welcomes -

and may you each know the blessing of God expressed in our Scottish weather:

If it's wet - then may you know the blessing that softly and persistently falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.

If it's cold - then may you feel the fresh bracing air of God's galvanising Spirit, even if it causes goosepimples.

If, by any chance, the sun is shining - may you bask in the radiant extravagance of God's love, and know the spiritual equivalent of photosynthesis

If it is cold, and with showers and sunny intervals - may you know the threefold blessing of the Triune God and be blessed, galvanised and radiated by the love of God, and give thanks for the predictably unpredictable weather of Scotland, which one way or another, speaks the welcome of God.

God's recreation of the new day

Ever since my father took me across the fields in Ayrshire, pushing a wheelbarrow and filling it with the soil from molehills, I've enjoyed the garden as a therapeutic place. To be amongst things that are growing; to contribute to the process of growth and beauty; to cut and shape the hedge as a way of sticking my tongue out at those parts of life that are harder to control and make tidy!; to exercise stewardship not as dominion but as care, appreciation and willing labour.

Yes, I can see why Cat Stevens' rendering of Eleanor Farejeon's poem, Morning has broken, elbowed its way into our hymn repertoire - it celebrates the wet, lush, freshness of an early morning garden. It's so popular that I've conducted weddings, funerals, worship services and school assemblies where the simple evocative words and tune touch something deeply human (humus), almost regardless of the mood of the occasion - joy, sadness, adoration, endurance.

All of this because today I did the hedge, and last night scarified the grass. Morning has Broken doesn't have a verse about weeds, moss and flymos, but no matter, I can live with a song that is uncomplicated in its vision of what makes it worth getting out of bed for. So much of my life is focused on ideas - and yes I do live in my head a lot! So it's a relief, and a return to a lifelong enjoyment of getting my hands dirty, when I'm let loose to do the labouring in the garden. One of my happiest memories (and best paid jobs!) was when my father paid me to mix his compost - three parts soil, two parts leaf mould, one part each of peat and sand - except for the stuff for his cacti which had two parts sand, two parts soil, and one part peat. And it was riddled using my bare hands - I still remember being fascinated by the texture of riddled compost, the damp smell, the promise of fertility and anchorage for all those cuttings!

The photo was taken 50 years ago - when dad was lying beside the drystane dyke that was our garden fence - the dog was our working collie, Norah. Taken by mum, with a box camera, it's a no' bad photie, eh?

Quality Enhanced Discipleship?

Like some football games, (one of which I am about to watch!) this was a day of two halves. I spent the entire working day formulating learning outcomes in preparation for the revalidation of our whole suite of awards and modules. After a while the mind begins to get the hang of this. What starts as an exercise in semantic arrangements to satisfy academic administrative procedures, becomes a process of defining as precisely and fairly as possible what our teaching, and the student's learning should be able to achieve in a collaborative educational commitment.

And at that point I sense the vocational importance of doing it right - which maybe panders to the perfectionist in me. But 'Do everything in the name of the Lord' is one of Paul's no exceptions statements, and I'm always suspicious when those Christ honouring demands are softened. So yes - here's an opportunity to offer good work as an act of spiritual faithfulness. Dag Hammarskjold warned us, 'in our era the road to holiness necesssarily passes through the world of action'.

It's tiring though - and there's only so much of this you can do well before you mutter, with a different kind of semantic precision, 'ma heid's nippin'! So I came home and before dinner went for a run - that's when you realise how stiff and tight the body becomes stuck in front of a computer, staring into  electronic white spaces you are trying to populate with keyboard generated symbols that might eventually win whatever prize is offered for the most original, creative, imaginatively conceived Quality Enhancement Documents!

It's surprising how stiff your legs get after a long stint plonking a keyboard. So I toddled up the park, and took it out on the hill. The hill is the longish steep incline in Barshaw Park (pictured) which I'm trying to run up at a respectable pace as part of my 'personal development plan'. It must be suppressed anger / frustration / euphoria, or a form of middle aged denial, but I did a personal best, set a new 'benchmark', 'gave evidence of progression', 'demonstrated a capacity for  self-motivation and personal development'. See! The terminology of Quality Enhancement has multiple life applications.

I wonder what would happen if we sat down and prepared a Programme Specification for Following After Christ. What the learning outcomes would look like, what would be included in the curriculum as relevant and important, what the learning and teaching methods would be, the criteria to be used in assessing progress and performance, the regulations about attendance, participation and commitment to the work of the class.....

Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me and learn of me.....

More interesting still - the admission requirements would be surprisingly open - you'd just have to want to be there, and to learn from Jesus!

Amazing Grace

Regret, remorse, repentance - hard to find the right word to describe the emotional and mental legacy of John Newton's years of slave trading. It's too easy to take pot shots at him and mock the man who wrote Amazing Grace because he didn't immediately see the reality of the evil under his nose and give up that involvement. But in this film Albert Finney captures with brilliant perceptivenes, the rough sentimentality, the emotional complexity, the sense even after decades that his part in the horrors of trans-Atlantic slavery compounded his unworthiness and self-loathing- so for me Newton and his tears of too late guilt was a crucial questioning presence in the film. Newton's portrayal adds a dimension of pathos to the reality of structural sin, is a counterpoint to the power of institutionalised inhumanity whose default mechanism is greed, and whose interest is to frustrate every attempt at rehumanising the way our world is, especially if the argument implies economic loss. The interests of the Crown in the revenue from the colonies meant that the link was easily made between the movement for abolition, and disloyalty, even sedition, aggravated by the war with France. Some of this complexity was worked into the film and prevents it from being a pious and politically naive hagiography.

So, the film Amazing Grace, (complete with pipe and wind band with drums at the end! - a blatant anachronism I greatly enjoyed without embarrassment!!) - was well acted, with a script that almost entirely, but not quite, avoids the cringeable, and includes just enough of the spiritual burden of Wilberforce the serious evangelical, to make explicit the connection between political activism and inner piety. The relational network between Wilberforce and Newton, and Pitt, and Foxe, and Clarkson and Stephen, was a convincing mixture of political expediency, moral concern and radical risk.

The almost entire white cast made me uncomfortable - yet I wonder how else to convey the sheer weight of the political argument that had to be won, and to portray the pervasive ignorance of the brutal realities linked indissolubly to national self-interest. The truth is, the presence of African people in the circles in which Wilberforce moved would be rare - and the moment in the film when he has the chance to win the freedom of a slave in a game of cards was a finely observed piece of moral theatre - wasted for me by him returning to the gambling den to sing Amazing Grace! I could understand the bewildered outrage of those whose tavern singing was silenced by a Russell Watson soundalike!

The love interest seemed to convey the cliche that behind every great man there is a stunning redhead! The moment in the film when she convinces Wilberforce to take up the fight again, and to marry her, seems to make that a historical hinge point - well, since it is a film for general release that will do a lot of good by bringing Wilberforce back to our attention, as Barry Norman might ask, 'And why not?'

I enjoyed this film. There is enough historical accuracy and detail to root it in the realities it tries to engage. At times it was very moving, and the scale of the issue, morally, spiritually and politically, is communicated with considerable and convincing care. Evangelicals were portrayed with just that amount of seriousness and involvement that seems justified by the facts - by the way the cameo portrayal of Hannah More was sharply observed - a compassionate snob with a sense of humour and an ethical  edge to her piety.

Go see before it moves away from the big screen.

Whodunnit as a study of sin

Just finished Henning Mankell's Firewall. The crime genre of fiction is an education in the experimental theology of sin. I heard Mankell interviewed on the radio, when he discussed his take on contemporary life, particularly the dissolution of moral disctinctions in key areas of human development and technological advance.

This novel is about murder, eco-terrorism, the power of the internet and the dependence of global financial and business institutions on computer security and integrity, the impact of global banking on the poorest nations - and at the centre is Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander, a flawed, fallible, likeable loner. That's as near to cliche as Mankell comes - he writes with psychological subtlety,convincing detail, narrative knowhow, and a refreshing lack of gratuitous expletives! This is narrative theology that IS readable!!

jazz, tapestry and Moltmann

Years ago I stopped giving up things for Lent, and started taking up things for Lent. One year I asked a friend who is an expert on Jazz and the Bible to compile some music for me to listen to throughout Lent. I still struggle to 'get' jazz, but I do understand its passion, its rhythm's, its re-construal of the world, the place of improvisation and collaboration and inspiration in music that celebrates human longing and creativity. The long track of Duke Ellington's 'David danced before the Lord' I played endlessly in the car to my great blessing! I still think the drummer was a genius.

Another time I read through the poetry of Emily Dickinson and discovered a whole world of grace expressed in the oddity and precision of one who told the truth and told it slant. Another year I took up the telephone - as they say in cooking programmes - 'you literally just' take up the phone - every night of Lent I phoned someone for no other reason than to speak with them and wish them well in their lives. Since then I have seen the phone as a conduit of friendship, conversation, fun, comfort, and if occasionally an interruption, even these can be moments of grace.

After a long hiatus I have 'taken up' my tapestry frame, again. I am working on a new tapestry which will be my project through Lent, Easter and beyond. Working a tapestry is, amongst other things, a way of finding out how stressed you are! Doing it right and well, you mustn't pull the thread too tight (so unclench the teeth and relax the shoulders); working on small guage canvas (26 to inch) you can't work either mindlessly or rapidly (so rememebr, there is no deadline). Controlled gentleness and contentment with slowness gets it done........................... eventually. I wish I could always believe and practice in my life, the observation of can't remember who, 'Snails do the will of God slowly!

I don't do 'kits', I prefer to design my own tapestries, or work freehand from a picture. This one is a Celtic cross made up of five squares,(and made up out of my head!) with the interior of each showing intertwining celtic knots depicting the Trinity. It is being done in stranded cotton, the bright colours ranging through the rainbow, and the colours chosen randomly apart from the strong outlines of the Trinity symbols. (I'll post a photo once it's recognisably what I've described!!) Tapestry is the creation of a picture or image from thousands of intersecting stitches - no wonder it has been used as a metaphor of human life, its textures, colours, patterns, shapes and overall theme.

Not sure what it will look like but it is an attempt to show the relations between the suffering and crucified love of God in Christ, and the eternal loving relations of the Triune God. We had a class last year on 'Rediscovering the Triune God' basing much of our discussions around the theology of Jurgen Moltmann. His contribution to contemporary thought includes profound meditation on the crucified God, and the effect of the crucifixion on the eternal relations of Father Son and Spirit. As a Lenten theme it cries out for meditation and prayer.