Michael Louis Hedley

It's funny what jumps out in the context of current life, something that didn't when I first read it too many moons ago to specify exactly, but I suppose that's significant on both counts. I'm referring to Grahame Greene's novel Stamboul train, one of his first which I picked up again recently. A conversation early on the Ostend to Istanbul train when Mr. Opie chatting to a perfect stranger in his compartment about the relative merits of first and second class travel. 'Yes, that's so-yes,' the other answered with alacrity. 'But 'ow did you know I was English?' 'I make a practice,' Mr. Opie said with a smile, 'of always thinking the best of people.'

Gratitude for the abundance you have received is the best insurance that abundance will continue. (Muhammad 570-632)

On the Metro today I noticed a young mother with her baby in a pram. She was lost in thought. Suddenly she looked down at her child and smiled. Her face was transformed. Love beamed out with the power to light a thousand lanterns.

So, it's Easter Monday, we all seem to be agreed on that, yesterday Easter Sunday also known as Easter Day, filled with memories of times past and do you remember when moments of childhood and beyond. The day before seems problematic. In church notices it's Holy Saturday, in newspapers simply Saturday, shop opening hour listings as Easter Saturday, as did Metro Information boards, Sports commentators and in general parlance. (This coming Saturday is Easter Saturday). Then it was Good Friday, everyone seems to agree. Good, as  in the old English meaning of Holy. What was the day before that? Maundy Thursday. What's that? It's from the Latin word Mandatum which means a command or order to do something and refers to the command from the Lord, 'love one another as I have loved you.' There's a thought. Happy Easter.

I always like to spend a bit of time during this special week to get stuck into something that's going to take me forward, so I was delighted to hear that Richard Rohr's new book was available. This wonderful teacher has produced something remarkable. I have enjoyed reading, pondering and sharing his insights in his perhaps final work,  I hope it's not, but he hasn't been well recently.  The Book: 'The Universal Christ' (How a forgotten reality can change everything we see, hope for and believe) A small measure of the man and his thinking is contained in the dedication of the work. "I dedicate this book to my beloved fifteen year old black Lab, Venus, whom I had to release to God while beginning to write this book. Without any apology, lightweight theology, or fear of heresy, I can appropriately say that Venus was also Christ for me."

As I was quietly working away on the long table in the Lit and Phil yesterday I noticed a young student nearby working away on Middlemarch by George Eliot. She was typing away whilst watching a T.V. production of the book. Exams clearly beckoning. I thought I must pick up the book again myself, one of the great novels. As I was reflecting on the great issues of her book I remembered something she wrote that had resonated with me a long time ago and I had sent as part of a birthday greeting to someone close. 'Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.'

I've just finished reading A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter which he wrote in the Sixties and  a sentence of his has been running through my mind since. 'The more clearly one sees the world, the more one is obliged to pretend it does not exist.' (page 154)