Prayers...

Spotted this banner yesterday in the handsome market town of Malton: food for thought rather than prayer. Let me get this straight. You’re petitioning a supernatural being, who is both omniscient and omnipotent, in the hope that he will listen to our prayerful entreaties and, presumably, act. You keep saying that God has a plan for us: a plan which currently includes the unchecked advance of a contagion for which we have no cure. We have to assume that his current plan for humanity includes thinning out the herd by picking off the stragglers. Is he really going to change his plan because a few people ask him to? Is he at the beck and call of true believers? Is this how an omnipotent being behaves? If God wanted to rid the world of coronavirus, he could do it in an instant. The fact that he doesn’t should give us pause for thought. May I suggest a more appropriate slogan: Light a candle, say a prayer, wallow in self-delusion…

 

The local...

 Another quiet corner of Beverley...

Jehovah's Witnesses...

It's always a pleasant surprise to see one of my images being used to illustrate an article on the Guardian website, especially about this particular bunch of religious zealots. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they, and they alone, are "God's chosen people", and that everyone outside the sect is "controlled by Satan". In response to recent accusations of child abuse within the organisation, the Witnesses have taken the path already established by the Catholic Church: blaming the victims and shielding the perpetrators. This is what is likely to happen whenever religious fundamentalists are convinced that they are “answerable only to God"... 

 

Something new...

It’s good to learn something new every day. It keeps us intellectually nimble, while offering us something both precious and too seldom exercised: the opportunity to change our minds. I have enhanced my appreciation of our democratic traditions (and an understanding of just how vulnerable they are). I’ve learned that ‘petrichor’ is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry land. I’ve learned how to find the make, model and date of first registration of any car from its number-plate. I’ve learned that Finkle Street (a name found in many northern towns) just means ‘a street with a bend in it’. I’ve recently found out what ‘dog whistle politics’ means. I discovered that Pontefract’s name comes from the Latin for ‘broken bridge’ (obvious, really). I learned that McDonalds isn’t just a place for clean toilets and free wifi; apparently they make burgers too. And I finally realised that I shouldn’t try to mate outside my own species…

A quiet corner of Cawood...

 

Beverley...

 This evening in Beverley...

Dystopia...

A line from Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command”. Compare and contrast with what Donald Trump said last week: “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening."

Window shopping in Tadcaster...

 

Cawood...

 Postman on his round in Cawood today...