Barometers
Barometers DM 24th August 2024 Old Kevie is the barometer in our street. If he says it’s Yellow Bin Night (Recycling), then it is. Or if he puts out his Green Bin (green waste), then so does the rest of the street. Kev’s reliability has saved me on several occasions from the bother of uncollected […]
Exegesis
Exegesis DM 17th August 2024 Apart from a ute, boat, and half-day on Friday, builders and preachers have much in common. What architect drawings, onsite consults, and hammers are to a builder, so exegesis, hermeneutics, and homiletics are to a preacher. Exegesis is the act of drawing out the meaning of a Bible text, hermeneutics […]
Second chances
Second chances DM 10th August 2024 The word ‘repechage’ appears to have won a gold medal in linguistics at the Paris Olympics. It’s French for second chance. In my growing-up years, the word was confined to the world of rowing, with the best losers getting a second chance to make the finals. But now it’s […]
Pinkies!
Pinkies! DM 3rd August 2024 I had one of those “pinkies” moments when my neighbour dropped in recently for a visit; not that I said it out loud. The discussion turned to French lessons at school, and a particular song that his teacher, Miss Collins, taught him: ‘Sur le Pont, d’Avignon’ (On the bridge of […]
Olympic glory
Olympic glory DM 27th July 2024 It’s Olympic season again, and soon the torch will be lit, the village occupied, and competition begun. But O for the chance to see again characters like Eric the Eel and Eddie the Eagle. Alas, they are no longer allowed to compete. Once upon a time, the person who […]
Original thinking
Original thinking DM 20th July 2024 Whenever I read a book, and there are no footnotes at the bottom of the page with citations or references or attributions, I assume that what is written, and the arrangement of expression, are coming from the author’s own mind. (Notwithstanding the technicality that every author’s mind and heart […]
Dullness and Green
Dullness and Green DM 13th July 2024 I still have to look up the dictionary. The latest consult was prompted by a word in one of T. S. Eliot’s poems (‘East Coker’) – ‘hebetude’. It was sited in a stanza about things to look forward to in old age. As I thumbed to the ‘H’s’, […]
Referees and Resurrections
Referees and Resurrections DM 6th July 2024 Sometimes I wish that our Bible translators watched more soccer. There’s a verse in the opening paragraph of Paul’s famous letter to the Romans, where he makes the point that Jesus’ resurrection is demonstrative proof of his divinity. My NIV puts it this way: ‘… and through the […]
Real food
Real food DM 22nd June 2024 I felt like Pierre in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, sitting at home, after the war, with a plate of potatoes before him, and feeling like it was the first time he had ever tasted their simplicity and warmth. I had bought some potatoes, fresh from the earth, washed the […]
Love your enemies
Love your enemies DM 15th June 2024 I once took revenge on a near neighbour, whose cat attacked my daughter, by mowing her lawn for three years. I’m not sure that she actually knew what her cat had done, but nor did she ever come out of the house to acknowledge that her grass was […]