Yesterday…
…At The Seagull Theatre I saw ‘Satellites’… Natalie Songer told the true story of two brothers, her great-uncles
Uncle Cor and Uncle Tom were Dutch, young men when Germany invaded Holland in 1940. Both had fine scientific minds. Cor worked in a factory making radios and was eventually taken to a concentration camp where he died. Tom escaped to America where he became part of the NASA space programme…
Natalie’s story was both fascinating and thought-provoking. She told it with warmth and affection…
…In the paper I read Oisin Murphy’s story… Oisin has been three times British champion jockey, but he’s currently banned from riding.
He was famous, successful and one of the few jockeys to ride for the Queen. However he had an alcohol addiction. In November last year he received a £31,000 fine and was banned from riding for 14 months for alcohol offences and Covid breaches.
With the help of counselling, Alcoholics Anonymous, and the support of friends and family he’s now been sober for nearly a year…
…I met my friend Adrian for coffee… He told me about his granddaughter Stevie, a single mum with 3 sons.
Stevie had been homeless and living in a hostel. She’d been provided with a council property that was in a poor state of decoration and repair. Adrian had been helping to decorate the house and make it more of a home.
Hopefully Stevie will be able to make a fresh start…
…I read the prophet Zechariah in my Bible… In the middle of a number of metaphors and pictures he talks of burning sticks… ‘a brand snatched from the fire’.
John Wesley, founder of Methodism, famously chose this verse ‘a brand snatched from the fire,’ as his epitaph. When he was 5-years-old he had been rescued from a burning building; later he used the phrase to describe his spiritual and moral transformation.
Perhaps Uncle Tom, Oisin and Stevie are ‘brands snatched from the fire’ too…
malcolmsmusings.org 