Sufficent

 

Hello. I trust that you have managed to live through England v Spain. I like the football. It's just all the hooley before and after that, I can't stand. I'm ranting again I know. All this hoo-ha around the football produces a pressure way beyond its importance and it worsens the more communal it gets. I think I have only watched football in a pub once. It was many years ago and, after having navigated half an hour of "What's a good-looking girl like you watching a men's sport?" (I make no claim to good looks - beer goggles were very much in operation) I settled down in the tensest room in the world to watch people live out the agony of disappointment from something they could do nothing about. No wonder people get battered watching these things - the pressure is overwhelming. Speaking of battered, I read this week that domestic violence goes up by 26% during football tournaments. 38% if England lose. Is it me? Do things seem more violent at the moment. I'm putting aside the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump (He deserves our sympathy and support. I'm not an American but I'm not sure that should extend to voting him into the White House). I am confused by the inner logic of men who, having been rejected for whatever reason by a woman (bit of advice, sometimes it's because you need to lose 15 stone and have a wash) feel that a logical response is to kidnap a girl from a train or murder her family with a crossbow. What? 

When I was growing up, people from my background routinely talked about "sin" being a thing. It's barely talked about now because doing so automatically brackets you with people who want the death penalty for abortions and those who feel that a good thrashing for children who answer back is on the whole a good thing. But, in a world where people are being bombed out of existence for political expediency or just wandering around Bristol with a suitcase full of human remains, I'm not sure what other explanation there can be for what passes as day-to-day humanity. These are obviously extremes and I might not identify with them. The writer Francis Spufford memorably defined sin as “the human propensity to f*** things up” or “The HPtFtU” for short. I absolutely recognise myself there. You could get quite depressed. So...a couple of things that happened today that made me think.

A lady sat next to me this morning. I didn't know her but she was very pretty so I took an immediate dislike to her. She gave me a winning smile (nice as well - annoying) and then she crossed herself and put her fingers to her lips. It's not something you see every day in the old Methodists but I thought how lovely it was. Past me would probably not have thought this but I just thought it seemed like a lovely way to slow down, acknowledge why you were there and tune in. I don't think, because of my background that it is something I would do myself. I remember, at Primary School because we were attached to a church, watching the other kids skipping into Monday service, sort of curtseying to the altar and crossing themselves. When I asked Aged Father about this, I was told, in no uncertain terms that this would not be acceptable for me and to go away and read Fox's Book of Martyrs until the mood passed. These days, I feel different about it (That's good of me I know) and I am struck by the possibility that there is more that we have in common than separates us. (Quoted by Jo Cox, one of the increasing number of MPs being mown down like nine pins). 

Also this morning, the minister quoted Matthew 6:34 

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

That used to be written as "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof". This is both more poetic and also, maybe, a bit more useful for those of us overwhelmed to the point of uselessness by the bad things in the world and wondering where things are going to end up. I (slightly warily) sat and watched a buzzy bee next to my park bench this afternoon. He was getting on with it. Doing the work he had been given. Not lying on his little furry back and crying "Where will it all end?" Maybe, for now, it's enough to just be doing the right thing each day - pushing back against the nonsense as much as we can. Have a good week and, though it pains me to say it, Spain were the better team.