I have good news and I have bad news - or bad news and bad news depending on your point of view:
The Curate is back, but I can't find my Mojo!
I have just returned from a fortnight in Jerusalem studying at the International School for Holocaust Studies, and since my return have shivered and frankly, lied a lot. I left Tel Aviv on a day when its temperature peaked at 41 degrees, and now languish in my corner of middle-England that is petrified under the oppressive temperatures scaling the dizzy heights of -1!
Yeah, baby, yeah! I said I had lied a lot and I know you have scanned down to this point to find out how. Well, my lovely friends and family, upon my return, have asked: 'Did you have a good time?'. I say 'yes, thanks, it was a wonderful experience - a real opportunity'. I lied. The real answer is 'the experience was life-changing and valuable, but my heart was ripped out and sacrificed on the altar of ideological genocides; I have seen things that will give me nightmares for the years (and already have); but otherwise great, thanks'!
I am not complaining, for as a man I am unaccustomed to such a thing as that - but I returned to this blog from the other one I have been doing wondering how on earth I could be The Vernacular Curate again. Suddenly [for me, even if not for you] this stuff seems grotesquely trite and facile (and quite unlike the levitous Lesley's Journo-Blog) - hey ho!
With all this in mind, a dear friend (a reader - and good morning to you, for you will know who you are, Brother) stopped me yesterday and thanked me for this eyewash - a kindness for which I am deeply grateful.
So, kids - I am back, but I seem to be devoid of me Mojo, Man. I deign to write this in the shadow of so much death and evil as this for me is living, and living is what I have to do. Life is the gift I am granted and if someone somewhere smiles or is glad to have visited this site, I have done some good in a world where we need every little bit of it we can.
Sounds amazing
ReplyDeleteHave a (trite?) amen: "Amen."
ReplyDeleteAlleluia Vern is back! Somewhat battered, but none the worse for that.
ReplyDeleteThis and the "other" extremely poignant and well-written one are maybe the two extremes of your (schizoid as I have previously called it) blogging persona and perhaps the real person lies somewhere between.
Will watch this space with even closer attention!
glad you're back :)
ReplyDeletewhy don't you share some of your experience on your trip on here instead? It's obviously on your heart and we would love to read about it...
redx
Thanks all - good to be back in normal space once again!
ReplyDeleteRed, follow the Yad Vashem link at the top left of my page - it is all there!
Welcome back. Thanks for the other blog. It has been good to read you sharing your thoughts and responses to what you were doing. I for one would be interested if you decide to continue to share as you continue to process what you have seen, heard and experienced on your visit.
ReplyDeleteBlessings.
There is no hierarchy of suffering. Jesus dealt with each person's suffering as if it was the most urgent case he had ever come across. A parish priest should minister in the moment without reference to anything outside of the suffering of the moment and locality. A slight head cold should be afforded the same amount of pastoral care as the bombing of a city. Of course, this is impossible in the real world. We only manage to do it because we live in the Kingdom.
ReplyDelete