Emily Wilding Davison

Telegraph

I am not the fount (font?) of all knowledge as you know but when I spot a glaring omission, I do have to open my ladylike bouche and say something. I have just watched a programme by Claire Balding - the new nation's sweetheart - about Emily Wilding Davison. She was the Suffragette who threw herself in front of the King's Horse in the 1913 Derby. She died of her injuries on June 8th 1913. One hundred years ago on Saturday
It was a fine programme as it goes, although it seemed to be more about how much we all love Claire than anything else really (and I do think that she seems very nice and capable and good at her sporty type job) There was a big gap though, as Claire tried to find out what motivated this highly intelligent person to act the way she did. Whether it was imprisonment or hunger strikes and force feeding. Whether it was civil disobedience or worse. Everyone is struggling to find out what drove her. Of course the cause drove her but there was something else. Emily was a committed Christian. She felt that obedience to God translated into giving everything to fight injustice. The way that translated into her life may be problematic but there it is. 
No-one else seemed to have think that it is worth mentioning so I thought that I would do it. Just so you know.

Oh the news

April Jones

Georgia Williams

Syria

Baghdad

Lee Rigby

Baby 59

and on it goes

Just thought about this

Meeja

I am updating you on my media forays this week - whether you like it or not.

Watched... Star Trek  Into Darkness

Late to this party, I know. Well - it was better than ok - just.

Benedict Cumberbatch steals every scene he is in by choosing to act rather than just be a movie star like everyone else does.
Simon Pegg's Scottish accent aside - he is the next best thing in it.
There is a frankly annoying scene where Alice Eve who is playing a frankly annoying character appears in her bra and grundys for no particular reason as far as I could see.
There is also a preposterous bit where the baddie has been set up to be superhuman and faster, higher stronger etc etc, yet is then pursued by what seemed to me to be a borderline podgy Spock. Spock not only catches him but then proceeds to knock seven bells out of him!
I know what I sound like but I did like it - honest I did. I especially liked the bit where the baddie said "My Name is........." and someone behind me gasped. Must have been a Trekkie. 
Have certainly spent worse times in the cinema so happy to recommend. PS Don't do what we did and waste your money on 3D.

Re Read - A Place of Greater Safety

Everyone quite rightly makes a big fuss about Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. This though is my favourite Hilary Mantel. It's about the French Revolution. I don't know if you need to know a bit of history to enjoy it - I did this period at A level and then did some further study. I love it though. A warning - it is massive and might look a bit off-putting. For me, it rattles along like a train.


Nearly finally

I don't know if you have seen this furore (is that a word?) but Disney is in a bit of trouble. Merida, who is the heroine of their children's movie Brave has now joined the happy band of Disney princesses. To do this she had to have a makeover - apparently. This is the transformation.

Spot the difference? Of course you do. Disney has decided to bring sexy back. To a children's heroine! Stop it Disney! I haven't seen the film but I am told by young girls of my acquaintance that it was about being yourself and not being forced to be something that you are not. AS LONG AS BEING YOURSELF IS BEING A FOXY MINX. If you are interested, there is a campaign here to get Disney to change it's mind.

Certainly finally

Sorry to be so photo heavy but this is doing the rounds of Twitter and making all the girlies in my daughter's class laugh a lot. It's a photo of Benedict Cumberbatch as a baby and he looks EXACTLY THE SAME. Bye Bye

Hard Reality

I wanted to share a strange thing with you. It is that I have been very impressed by the honesty of someone's grief. When I say impressed, I obviously mean that I understand that, given a choice, this person would rather not go through it at all  but still, his behaviour has done him credit. Rick Warren is the author of The Purpose Driven Life, the best selling Christian book. He is a pastor, a teacher, a giver and an all round good egg. At the beginning of April, his son Matthew took his own life. Matthew, a Christian, had suffered with bi-polar disorder for most of his life. Pastor Warren is a prolific tweeter. Like most Christian leaders, his tweets are usually positive and upbeat. They changed significantly after Matthew's death. You my think that this would be obvious. However, there is sometimes a school of Christian thought that faith translates into "positivity in all circumstances." When I was ill, I remember someone literally yelling "All things work together for good for those that love God" under the toilet door at me, when I had fled there to escape. She was only trying to help. She didn't. I sometimes think I sense Christians being encouraged to sort of ignore the grief by repeating how great God is - if only through gritted teeth. Warren has not done this. His Tweets are shot through with grief, yet he finds comfort in Jesus.

Every time my heart shatters I take the pieces to Jesus for repair.

We can't grow without change. We can't change without letting go. We can't let go without some loss, and that brings grief.

Grief comes in waves.When a big wave hits, you cant ignore it.You surf it and ride it out. My surfboard is talking to Jesus.

Kay and I are overwhelmed by your love, prayers, and kind words. You are all encouraging our #brokenhearts.

Many people have been really helped by The Warrens' honesty. God has depth. He has the deepest depth. When we try and pretend that bad things don't happen or that when they happen we don't really get hurt, then I think that we make God seem shallow. When people grieve  God enters into that grief with them. He doesn't leave them alone and he asks that we do the same.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

My Curious God

Please find pictured above a VERY small snippet of HOH's music collection. All vinyl and Northern Soul Collections are kept where I can't reach them after a rather nasty accusation of using a record as a Frisbee.  Please note that there are NO witnesses to this and no jury in the land would convict me.
Anyway, I am idly rooting through his CDs to put stuff on my MP3 without going through the bother of downloading which, I am sure,  is only slightly less complicated that splitting an atom. I came across the lovely Charlie Peacock.

In the 90s he was my Christian performer of choice with intelligent lyrics and lovely thoughts. One of my favourite songs is "What's it like in your world?"
I tried really hard to find it on You Tube - but it has perhaps every song he has written apart from this one so I have reprinted the lyrics. If you are interested, you can download it. You could do a lot worse - it's very 90s but vair good. Anyway, in the absence of the music, here are the lyrics

What's it like in your world?
What makes you laugh?
What makes you cry?
Let me look into your soul, so I can see what the world looks like through your eyes.

You don't have to ever pretend when you're in my company,
You've got to know I will not turn and run from you if you practice honesty.

What's it like in your...(what's it like in your world?)
What's it like in your world?
What's it like in your...(what's it like in your world?)
I want to know what's going on,
I want to know what's going on.

Do you have any expectations of yourself and the world in which you live?
If you had a chance to make some kind of difference, tell me now, what would you, what could you give?
Is there any hope you've set aside?
Any dreams yet to come true?
Well, tell me, tell me, tell me true,
Are there any longings, any passions that you've kept hidden from my view?

It is a mystery that the God who knows my thoughts and hopes and dreams is still genuinely curious about me. Remember in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve had done the deed with the apple. They then went on to show a spectacular lack of understanding about just how big God is by thinking that the most effective response would be to hide behind the nearest bush. (All the best with that one guys) God, being God and therefore knowing exactly where Adam is, still says

"Where are you?"

To me, I think that this is not about a physical absence, it's about a relational one. When Adam takes himself out of the relationship by behaving like a numpty - God misses him.

I have said before that it is beyond my understanding that God is interested in a one to one relationship, where I am a proper person with him, not a lab experiment. Knowing myself as I know myself, that is both terrifying and a comfort.   As best I can, I am choosing to be comforted by it and be grateful about God's curiosity about me.