Month: September 2009

Formula 1

Ever since I read about the rivalry of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the Reader’s Digest in pre-TV India I was fascinated by formula 1. I was a fan of Schumacher from 1993 when he came second in the German grand prix and I’ve managed to keep track of the world championships since.

The recent events have made the whole soap opera a bit sour but being the cynical person that I am I wasn’t entirely surprised. Continue reading “Formula 1”

‘…dangerous taste for unreality’

This is what the good Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said in a very interesting programme which marked the first anniversary of the collapse of the Lehmann brothers. He said some very good things actually using unpopular terms like Continue reading “‘…dangerous taste for unreality’”

A sign of hope

I thought Kim Clijsters winning the US Open was a real sign of hope. A lot of mothers end up with lower end jobs just on account of being mothers. They either lose their jobs on becoming pregnant or lose positions within companies and in some cases woman aren’t hired because they might become pregnant. Worst of all…

I thought Kim Clijsters winning the US Open was a real sign of hope. A lot of mothers end up with lower end jobs just on account of being mothers. They either lose their jobs on becoming pregnant or lose positions within companies and in some cases women aren’t hired because they might become pregnant. Worst of all if you’re a  mother there seems to be Continue reading “A sign of hope”

The Irrelevants

A long time ago
we learnt great things
over the fire of discussion
we shared great things

Sent back to our villages
we tried to share the incredible beauty
I was shushed.
She was shut up.

The cart needs to be held up
or the weak will fall over
Beauty is hard
for the Beholders’ change

The bitterest sadness
has been that the village elders
saw the beauty too
in all it’s scariness

and we can’t share this
for we are the irrelevants
whose wheels won’t hit the road
because we want everyone to fly

Memory

‘So can I see him?’

‘Well yes’, it said.

She swallowed still unsure of Malakan ettiquette if they had such a thing.

‘Is he all right?’

If light could be heard that was it’s voice.

‘No. In fact he succumbed.’

The throat tightened but hope was unbearable. ‘But here everything’s all right isn’t it? I mean that’s the whole point?’

‘Beloved…,’ the voice uttered. ‘You want to see your loved one. You can. But he is not a person. He is not he. In the final act of pestilence he was wiped out. He couldn’t accept love.’

The creature stopped and seemed to look down. Were those red sparks tears?

‘But why do I feel hope… for Alex?’

‘You love. And that has allowed us to save a husk. But merely a husk. It has no memory. And will never receive it back. The virus, in it’s death killed him.’

‘Yes… I know that. But maybe my memories can help.’

‘Oh yes’ the Malakan sparkled.

‘But’, he said in deepening blue ‘everyone’s memory is their own. Even if all the people Alex knew could share their memories his own will never come back. But…your sharing can start his new life. It will be an entirely new life. He will look a bit like Alex. Sound a bit like him. Maybe even do some of the things like Alex. But he’ll never be the Alex that you once knew. Then again…’ It paused.

She wept.

The Malakan held her in his arc of amber.

‘Alex!….’

Thank God for Atheists

Yes it’s a bit of nonsense statement. But a few days ago I said it out aloud. I literally thanked God that atheists were there. Well maybe it was because of the rather disgruntled nature of my faith. Also, the early Christians were referred to as Atheists although in the slightly older sense of the word. Or maybe it is that I actually do agree with atheists on certain things.  After all if we claim that something is there that cannot be measured by any of the senses or instruments we need the language and the logic to express what our claim actually means. Possibly, the language of Christianity has become much richer through it’s interaction with atheism even though fundamentalisms on both sides have tried to screech each other out .

Of course I don’t believe in the ultimate place of rational thought and empirical science. That belongs to a strange brown man who did things with fish and wood. But sometimes I am an atheist. Whatever beliefs I have are dry rotten thoughts. But very ocassionally… in such times… the wood… the fish… and the blood… brings tears to my eyes.