Year: 2021

Still Life

Posted on by Olaf

When does life begin and when does it end?  What is life?  The answers to these fundamental questions present problems to ethicists, moralists, scientists, politicians and even Christians.  Is the life of someone with a learning disability of any less value than a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize?  Should someone in a coma have their life-support machine left turned on when there are few signs of life?  Why do the majority of human beings cling to life but some want to abandon it?  Is it still ‘life’ for a homeless person? An amputee? A person with a terminal illness? An elderly resident in a care home with dementia? The questions here get to the attitudes, values and beliefs that are at the core of your being. Have your thoughts shifted on abortion and euthanasia or do you have clear views on what is still ‘life’? A bowl of fruit such as this contains few answers but such ‘still life’ has inspired countless artists.

  • ‘Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen – that stillness becomes a radiance’ – Morgan Freeman
  • ‘I think older women still have a full life’ – Betty White

Secret Agent

Posted on by Olaf

Have you noticed how everyone loves a secret? Some people are like Blackbirds scouring the lawn of life for them and yanking them out of others like juicy worms!  Some are keen to confide, others are not.  Some can be trusted but many can’t.  It is wise to be wary of those with the Blackbird tendency for such types are prone to gossip. A thing becomes a secret because it commonly has power to harm another person, community or country.  For these reasons and the innate desire of humans to want domination, countries have agents, secret agents and even double agents. This photo is reminiscent of a scene from 1974 ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ by John le Carré, a former spy himself. You may never have considered yourself to be like a ‘secret agent’ but peruse this a little more before dismissing the idea.

  • ‘Before Jason Bourne, before Jack Ryan, there was Bond, James Bond, the original two-dimensional, world-saving secret agent’ – Alex Berenson
  • ‘I don't think anyone should grow up wanting to go around killing people. I don't think anyone should grow up wanting to be a secret agent’ – Timothy Dalton

Saint or Sinner?

Posted on by Olaf

Is it both, either or neither?  Many Christians feel a sense of split identity – saint or sinner? Perhaps sometimes feeling more ‘saintly’ whilst at other times feeling a ‘downright sinner’!  Have you ever felt this?  St Augustine was one such who agonised over the good person he wanted to be and the sinner that he publicly confessed himself to be.  This painting of him portrays something of that tension.  Born in 354 AD to Monica, a devout Christian, he had at least two mistresses, an illegitimate child and lived a life of life of hedonism ruled by lust and worldly ambition, famously saying:  “God, grant me chastity and continence, but not yet”.  Yet when he was 31, he became a follower of Christ, then the Bishop of Hippo laying down much Christian doctrine.  Bishop Possidius of Calama recorded him as one who ‘ate sparingly, worked tirelessly, despised gossip, shunned the temptations of the flesh, and exercised prudence in finances’.

  • ‘Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee’ – St Augustine
  • ‘There's a duality in every man and every woman’ – Raquel Welch

Heaven’s above

Posted on by Olaf

What did Brian Cox, Brian May and Sir Patrick Moore have in common? It’s true that they loved music – Brian Cox being an accomplished keyboard player with two bands, Brian May being the legendary guitarist with Queen whilst Sir Patrick was a keen pianist and player of the xylophone.  However, their main bond was in their love of the night skies!  Brian May is an astrophysicist and generously bought Sir Patrick’s house in Selsey allowing him to live there for a peppercorn rent when finances became tight.  Patrick wore a monocle from the age of 16, becoming a specialist on the moon and an eccentric TV presenter who built an observatory in his back garden housing a 12 ½ inch reflector telescope.  The fascination of these three astronomers is shared by many, not least the mysterious astrologers from lands afar who followed a star.  We all want to know more about what is up there in the heavens above, whether it holds solutions for the problems of the earth and where the location is of Heaven itself.

  • ‘The love of heaven makes one heavenly’ – William Shakespeare