I have been sent this:

A Senior’s Version of FACEBOOK

For those of my generation who do not, and cannot, comprehend why Facebook exists: I’m trying to make friends outside of Facebook while applying the same principles. Therefore, every day I walk down the street and tell passers-by what I have eaten, how I feel at the moment, what I have done the night before, what I will do later and with whom. I give them pictures of my family, my dog and me gardening, taking things apart in the garage, watering the lawn, standing in front of landmarks, driving around town, having lunch, and doing what anybody and everybody does every day. I also listen to their conversations give them “thumbs up” and tell them I “like” them. And it works just like Facebook. I already have four people following me: two police officers a private investigator and a psychiatrist.

Last Friday saw the First Night of the Proms, those renowned concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and elsewhere that continue every evening throughout the summer. The Hall was packed, the music wonderful. I was there with friends. The company was good.

It was not the music the struck me this time so much as the silence. The music begins from silence. The audience applauds the arrival of orchestra; more applause as the leader arrives and for the conductor. Then silence. Absolute silence. Five thousand people absolutely silent.

Silence during Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor in the second movement; the electric quietness of the cello and the piano listened to with such attentiveness. Not a cough nor the faintest rustle of sound from the audience. The young soloist Isata Kanneh-Mason played Gershwin’s ‘The Girl I Love’ arranged by Percy Grainger as an encore. That too had the audience spellbound then cheering.

Our silence and their silence was essential to the music. We all knew it.

Coincidences

During my sermon on Sunday I mentioned that sometime we would have ‘Just as I am’ as the communion hymn and we were to take particular note of the words which illustrated what I was saying. I had not looked ahead in the Order of Service. The communion hymn – ‘Just as I am’.

The evening before the Prom concert some friends came to dinner. One of them, a composer. We talked about Psalm 150 and that musical settings of the psalm were triumphant and loud. We thought it could be approached quietly. Bruckner’s setting of psalm 150 was part of the prom programme. I hadn’t realised. It was wonderful and there was a quiet middle section.

A truly surprising realisation is that it has taken me eighty three years to discover one of the most celebrated quotations of G.K.Chesterton. 

That when we choose not to believe in God, we do not thereafter believe in nothing. We then become capable of believing in anything.

Even at this age I have new discoveries to make. 

PS And another new discovery is that Chesterton’s celebrated quote is actually by the Belgian Emile Leon Cammaerts who wrote chiefly in French and English and translated Chesterton’s Father Brown books into French. I continue to live and learn.

A truly surprising realisation is that it has taken me eighty three years to discover one of the most celebrated quotations of G.K.Chesterton.

That when we choose not to believe in God, we do not thereafter believe in nothing. We then become capable of believing in anything.

Even at this age I have new discoveries to make.

PS And another new discovery is that Chesterton’s celebrated quote is actually by the Belgian Emile Leon Cammaerts who wrote chiefly in French and English and translated Chesterton’s Father Brown books into French. I continue to live and learn.

Yesterday was the Feast of St Thomas the Apostle, Doubting Thomas. I have always liked this remembrance as it reminds me that the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty. Doubt is at the very heart of faith. Faith, Hope and Charity (or Love if that is preferred) all have this element of doubt or of risk. They are the stuff of life. Not one of them is a dead certainty.

In old age I am finding that planning for the future is primarily about living in the present. Of course I still have a diary and appointments ahead, not all medical, and there are arrangements to be made for tomorrow. However my focus is more than ever on today and relishing the moment. It’s rather good. I suppose some of it is letting tomorrow take care to itself.

Today is polling day in the United Kingdom. A major question for the political prophets has been, ‘How big will Labour’s majority be?’ or ‘How many seats will the Conservatives lose?’ Similar questions put in different ways have such different tones.