Step into the Road

 

It's a dangerous business going out of your door.
You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet,
there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

BILBO

 

This is just an excuse to post the first poster for the Hobbit, AND to utilise one of the guiding quotes I endeavour to live in the light of.  Compare:

Thomas said, "Master, we have no idea where you're going.
How do you expect us to know the road?"
Jesus said, "I am the Road."

Vaclav Havel: Wonder as an end in itself

The recently-deceased Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright-philosopher who became liberator and president, is worth listening to.  He thought our greatest shortcoming was pride in our own understanding:

'Strange things are happening and will happen. Not to bring oneself to admit it is the path to hell. Strangeness, unnaturalness, mystery, inconceivability… Until they are released and allowed to return to our minds things will not go well.

'Wonder… is, after all, the first impulse to the question: "What purpose does it all have?" "Why does it all exist?" "Why does anything exist at all?" We don’t know and we will never find it out. It is quite possible that everything is here in order for us to have something to wonder at. And that we are here simply so that there is someone to wonder…

'In all events, I am certain that our civilisation is heading for catastrophe unless present-day humankind comes to its senses. And it can only come to its senses if it grapples with its short-sightedness, its stupid conviction of its omniscience and its swollen pride, which have been so deeply anchored in its thinking and actions.'

[quote pinched from Archbishop Cranmer]

Yeah, but No

A bit of a turnaround.

After being 'in discernment' for 18 months, I found out last Wednesday that, since Maria & I want to spend time living near our family in the States in the not-too-distant future, the Church of England can't sponsor me for ordination training (regardless of whether they think I'm a good candidate or not).

So all our plans have to change.

Just in case you're worried about our consequent mental state, I should add that we're not depressed by this news, even though it isn't what we were hoping for. We're actually feeling very positive, especially since it opens up new possibilities.

[For example, we'll probably be leaving Cornwall and moving across the Pond before too long (I'll look into pursuing ordination from that side, almost certainly), which is exciting because we won't have to wear thermal socks quite so much.]

Sorry if you heard about this in such an impersonal way.

This is what Charleston, our probable future home, looks like from space:

[click for bigger]