The Guild

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Summer 2007
Wednesday 8th August
Well, is it that time already ?  Football is back and, in our house, it’s like it’s never been gone. The first game of the season has been attended and the recriminations have begun. I’m not a season ticket holder myself, but it kind of rubs off on you when you live with those who are, so I know that the manager must have been out of his mind to pick that team, I know that the referee must need his eyes tested – and I know that the Pope is a catholic.

In the first week of the season, the football has spilled on to the front pages and for all the wrong reasons.  It’s good to see our teams in Europe and great when they’re doing so well, but what is this chanting of abuse back home all about?  It’s certainly not about football and, as far as a practising Christian can tell, it’s not about any religion I can recognise. It’s about identity – ours and theirs - and how we can make sure the demarcation lines stay clearly marked.  We have our team, our place, our colours, our songs -  they have theirs. Now, is there anything else we can add to the mix to make sure everyone understands that we are not them. Oh yes, a club’s roots, way way back, are from a different tradition of the faith, so let’s find the most abusive way of stating that.

For any individual or group, identity is important and being aware of who they are and what they believe helps to build their community life and safeguard their cultural heritage.  But the mindless chanters of the football terraces would seem to have very little understanding of the values or culture of the faith they purport to guard. All they’re sure about is what and who they are not.

Here’s an idea for those so-called fans who fall foul of the SFA’s anti sectarianism measures.  Have them sign up for Christian education classes to be held while the game is on and only let them back – and license them to sing - once they’ve proved they know what they’re talking about.


Wednesday 11 July
For people of a certain age, the songs of Leonard Cohen are part of the soundtrack of their lives so I was an avid listener when he gave a radio interview this week.  For forty years he’s been writing evocative lines about love and loss, often with imagery of sacrifice and redemption drawn from Christianity, which is all the more striking given that he is a practising Jew.  Even more surprising is the fact that he spent five years as a Zen Buddhist  monk , not looking for a new religion, but using the techniques of a different faith to enhance and illuminate his own.

Cohen comes across then as a man of open mind and heart, but one remark made me wonder if we really were getting the full picture.  Cohen had given his guru a volume of his poetry to read and when he gave it back, the wise old monk had just the one question to ask about the poems – Were you honest boy?  For him that was the only critique that mattered.  

It’s the same question some are asking about Alastair Campbell’s diaries this week. What has he left out and why? And it’s not just public figures -  we all edit the narrative of our life on a need to know basis.  Parents aren’t told the whole truth about the weekend at T in the Park and children are often the last to hear about their parents’ difficulties. And for all the  personal information shared  freely on Facebook or recorded by CCTV cameras, people can still hide a great deal about their inner feelings and motivations.  Even between married couples there can be ‘no go’ areas of intensely personal space which are just too painful to share.

Some of this we manage instinctively, but maintaining the façade is a struggle.  People of faith find peace in the belief that nothing is hidden from their creator who doesn’t have to be impressed and can’t be deceived. For Christians that’s about a relationship with a father who loves the honest truth of who we are. Saint Paul calls it knowing fully, as we are fully known.

Wednesday 4 July
On their Independence Day I’d like to wish all our American visitors a happy fourth of July, particularly Al Gore, former Vice President and a campaigner for action on climate change .  He’s over here for Saturday’s Live Earth concert  raising awareness about global warming.  I’ve never met Mr Gore, but I’ve him to thank  for my husband’s latest spontaneous gesture of affection.

I arrived home from a weary Monday at the office this week to be met with an unexpected gift . “I’ve bought you something I know you’ll like”,  he said  handing  me my present.  Not flowers or chocolates, but a supply of energy saving light bulbs.  On Sunday evening our church had screened Al Gore’s film, “An inconvenient truth”  as part of its initiative to explore what we, as a local Christian community , can do to reduce our carbon footprint and show care for creation .  

The film’s impressive, the science stands up, the message is passionate but not hysterical, the challenge is clear .    After the showing we sipped our fairly traded wine and shared our earnest intentions.  Then we went home and I wondered what difference it all made – and I wasn’t alone in that thought.  The  reason most people give for failing to take individual action on climate change is the feeling that there’s no point my doing anything about it unless everybody else does.  How very human – I’ll go if you will, he’ll say sorry if she will, we’ll cease fire if they will.    Well, someone made the first move in our house and one more family now has energy saving light bulbs – thank you Mr Gore.

But what’s bothering me more than what I saw in the film is a comment made to an aid worker by a poor African farmer who knows nothing of Al Gore or the scientific debate, but knows his crops are failing year on year.  He said this - “I don’t understand  what’s happening, but the sun is getting nearer”.  For him it’s more than just an inconvenient truth.