One of the most frustrating things about working in education is that everyone is an expert. Because most people have spent so many years of their lives in school, they believe that they have a sound understanding of what constitutes a quality education. The delusion is perfectly understandable. It would be justifiable to have experienced a... Continue Reading →
A Farewell to Jane Austen: Let’s Be Sensible
I know that Jane Austen’s novels have much literary merit. She confronts social injustice with a sensitivity and occasionally very subtle and sardonic humour that few can match. She is justifiably considered to be one of the pre-eminent minds of her time. Even 200 years later, in countries and cultures far removed from Victorian England,... Continue Reading →
Where Evangelism Goes Wrong
In recognition of yesterday’s being Pentecost, and because I have been reflecting a lot on the early church lately, I want to talk about evangelism today. It is, in many ways, at the centre of the church’s activities, and indeed should be. Still, as with many of the modern church’s practices, I feel that we... Continue Reading →
Are you spiritually obese?
A culture driven by the need for immediate gratification and convenience will produce citizens who tend to be obese and lazy. Because they never have to exert themselves to have their needs met, they will begin to feel entitled to comfort, and will resent – even see as unnatural – anything that makes them uncomfortable. They... Continue Reading →
It’s Always Ourselves We Find In The Sea
maggie and milly and molly and may went down to the beach (to play one day) and maggie discovered a shell that sang so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and milly befriended a stranded star whose rays five languid fingers were; and molly was chased by a horrible thing which raced... Continue Reading →
Where Freedom Begins
“The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast... Continue Reading →
A Poem About Being Haunted
Being haunted is, relatively speaking, easy. When you are old enough – and sometimes, more tragically, before you should be – you have interacted sufficiently with the darker side of human nature to have been hurt profoundly. People hurt other people. It is one of the inescapable legacies we leave. No matter how much we... Continue Reading →
You Don’t Need To Be Extraordinary
The world can be divided into two basic types of people: those who, when overwhelmed by sufficient levels of desperation, internalise their feelings and commit suicide, and those who externalise those feelings and resort instead to homicide. My experience of a presentation I recently attended has left me relatively certain that I fall into the... Continue Reading →
There’s Something About Mary
National Geographic recently published an article about Mary, the mother of Jesus, describing her as the world’s most influential woman. Certainly she is a powerful figure, capturing the imaginations of millions and an icon to many of devotion, faith, strength and purity. I am aware, of course, that since we know so little about her,... Continue Reading →
Deconstructing Setebos
A truth I regard as an absolute is this: people will always – consciously or not – attempt to shape the world so that it meets their deepest needs. Every person has a set of core assumptions about what the world ought to be like, and we filter all out experiences through these assumptions, and... Continue Reading →
Vapors In The Wind 