Donner und Blitzen!

I woke up in time for 'Thought for the Day', and listened to Boris Johnson being interviewed by Mishal Hussein on the BBC Radio Four Today programme, being bullishly defiant in the face of the slow trickle of new calls for his resignation from his fellow Tories. I couldn't help notice the way in which he persisted in talking over his interviewer's attempt to question him. A man who doesn't listen or stop to think, but just keeps going regardless of the negative impression this gives of his treatment of female interrogator. I don't think he'd have been able to get away with this if he was up against a man, willing to stand up to his awful boorishness. 

After rising late, we had waffles for breakfast again this morning. Then we decided to drive to Penarth for a walk on the cliff top before lunch in one of the restaurants on the promenade. Half an hour into our walk, it started to thunder and rain heavily, we were compelled to shelter in Cioni's Bistro, the gelateria and snack bar by the children's playground on the cliff top, so we had a snack brunch instead, watching the downpour and listening to rumbles of thunder as we dried out. The sun then returned and we walked down to the pier to meet with Mark and Fran, who told us about the icon presentation they gave in Stroud last weekend to an audience of seventy, while we had a drink together.

We returned home, and while Clare rested, I walked up to the Cathedral and back. Once more dark clouds gathered and just as I left the park, thunder and lightening announced the opening of the heavens, slowly at first, but by the time I reached the front door, pelting rain was joined by heavy hail and more thunder and lightening, persisting for half an hour before sunshine briefly broke through dark grey clouds again before disappearing with another spell of rain. Quite a spectacle! 

As I have an earlier start tomorrow to get to the service I'm leading over in Cathays, I thought it would be a good idea to get an early night, rather than watch the penultimate episode of Inspector Montalbano, which finishes as eleven. As it was already available on iPlayer, we sat and watched it at seven instead. Next week is the premiere of the last ever Montalbano story, according to the BBC (or is it really the latest?) published a year before the death of author Antonio Camillieri in 2019, and filmed in 2021. There are two more published novels, I've discovered, and these haven't yet been turned into movies. After thirty six episodes, the regular characters in the fictional town of Vigata are as familiar and vivid as the cast of 'The Archers'. I wouldn't know about Easternders or Coronation Street characters as we've never watched either series.

Losing Lionel

Today's news has been full of tributes to Rabbi Lionel Blue, who died yesterday. as well as being a well regarded radio broadcaster and writer for the past forty years, he was also a teacher of theology and Jewish spirituality. So it was highly fitting that one of his rabinic students should have broadcast a 'Thought for the Day' tribute on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, as he was a regular contributor over many years to that programme, especially on Monday mornings, where his blend of good cherry, funny insights and spiritual wisdom really had you laughing and pondering as you went about your daily tasks. 

He had some lovely things to say about his relationship with Jesus, about whom he had learned from evangelical students in Oxford as an undergraduate. Jesus, that unique and original Jewish character, who inspired Lionel to be himself, to find himself in ministry as a rabbi, and as an overtly gay man with much to say about the real nature of unconditional and faithful love in human relationships of all kind.

His name first became known to us in the early seventies through a paperback cook book, one of several to carry his name, this one called 'A taste of heaven'. He taught generations of people, believers and unbelievers alike, to lighten up, relax and enjoy life's goodness, while taking all its hassles in one's stride, muddling through wherever necessary. What a lovely person. What a great life, whose wisdom made a quiet difference to so many of his contemporaries.

In recent years, due to age and infirmity he broadcasted less and less often, but his funny remarks and profound reflections about the nature of old age, decline, grief, and feebleness revealed that there was no diminishment in his ability to seek and find the glory of God in any imaginable situation, and convey that essential reassurance affirmed in the poetry of the Song of Songs: 

'Many waters cannot quench love. Love is stronger than death'.