The Bible and Jesus

I’m reading Yann Martel’s novel ‘The High Mountains of Portugal’. It’s rather appropriate at this time of year as the stories take place around Christmas time. There is a load of religious imagery and theme throughout, and the following passages really struck a chord.  Kind of makes you approach Scripture from a more open-mind, and less literal. Certainly makes me appreciate the Bible a bit more. If the name Yann Martel rings a bell, it should. He wrote ‘Life of Pi’, winner of the 2002 Man Booker prize and later adapted into the Oscar winning movie. Read this and keep it in mind when you next read the Bible. 

The miracle of Jesus walking on water is a guide to how we must read Scripture as a whole. The gospels are lesser, their message weakened, if we read them as though they are reports of four journalists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) But if we understand them as written in a language of metaphors and symbols, then they open up with moral depth and truth….Jesus trod the earth with the calm assurance that he would stay with us and we would stay with him so long as he touched us through stories, so long as he left a fingerprint upon our startled imagination….We must abandon this reductionist quest for the historical Jesus. He won’t be found, because that’s not where – that’s not how – he chose to make his mark. Jesus told stories and lived through stories. Our faith is faith in his story, and there is very little beyond that story – faith. The holy word is story, and story is the holy word.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

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Covid strikes researchers in remotest place on earth!

Polar researchers in Antarctica have contracted COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated and living miles from civilization. Two thirds of the 25 staff based at Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Polar Station have caught the virus, the Le Soir newspaper reported, proving there is no escape from the global pandemic. The outbreak took hold despite all staff passing multiple PCR tests, quarantining and living in one of the most remote places in the world.

The situation has echoes of the plot of John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic The Thing, which was advertised on posters with the warning “man is the warmest place to hide.”

In Cape Town they quarantined for 10 days and took another PCR test. A further test was needed when leaving for Antarctica and a final one five days after that. One person tested positive seven days after arriving at the station on Dec 14. The individual was placed in isolation but tests revealed two others had caught the virus. All three left the station on Dec 23 but the virus has continued to spread. (The Telegraph)

That just about wraps it up. I can’t think of a better way to sign off 2021 than to share this Antarctica story. If Covid can strike down scientists in the most remote region on earth, then it’s time to face it. It’s gonna get us all eventually. Get used to the idea of riding through a bad flu for a couple days and hopefully not being one of the unlucky who ends up in hospital. What’s the point of introducing more vaccine into your system when the virus is always a step ahead? Governments the world over keep moving the goalposts and changing the rules. It is obvious that everybody is flying by the seat of their pants. Nobody has a clue how to beat Covid! When it can do what it did to people who are arguably the smartest and most careful in the world, then how are you and I going to avoid contracting it? Covid is here to stay. Feel fortunate that it morphed into the more virulent but less catastrophic Omicron. Maybe herd immunity will be the only thing that ends up saving humanity. God save us all!

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NIMBYism (not in my back yard)!

And that folks, is NIMBYism personified. Councillor Bailey and his wife Evelyn Bailey have succeeded in driving these venerable County businesses out. As in right out the door. The Baileys, if you have not already guessed, happen to live next door to these restaurants. Ergo, NIMBY! It is a sign that Prince Edward County has gone over the edge and is no longer the place I moved to 20 years ago. When a local bureaucrat and his cronies at Shire Hall can wield so much influence as to fabricate non existent safety concerns and have No Parking signs with $400 fines installed in places that are totally 100% safe, it is a sad day in this County’s history. Yes, real estate prices are going thru the roof, since people from the cities want to live here and experience the bucolic County life. Yes, the nature of life here is changing. But the approach taken by our Council to manage this change is so draconian that it will drive out the very people and businesses that attract newcomers. Enjoy County life while you can folks, it has irrevocably changed. And the future? God only knows!

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God is an anachronism

As long as the world is ruled by chaos, God is an anachronism and every compromise with our own conscience is treacherous. Whenever that damned inner voice starts to speak you have to shut your ears.

Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon.

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