Strength and Vulnerability

Strength and vulnerability this week…

On the news there’s been Storm Pia – we’ve seen the strength of the winds, and the vulnerability of those who have experienced power cuts, fallen trees or stormy seas.

Yesterday should have been my ‘Singing for Health’ group. It was cancelled due to a spate of Covid infections amongst our regular attendees many of whom are vulnerable… Covid’s strong; my friends need to be stronger.

Daniel Jillings was in the news again. We’ve known Daniel since he was born, deaf. When he was 12 he started campaigning for British Sign Language (BSL) to become a GCSE subject, saying it was unfair that he could not take a GCSE in his own language.

Now 17, Daniel is delighted with this week’s announcement: GCSE BSL will start in 2025. Daniel’s disability causes inevitable vulnerability; it’s also provided him – and his mother, Ann, who has campaigned alongside him – with perseverance, determination and strength.

Last night at our church carol service…

…I had conversations… about recent deaths and grieving families… with Danny who had a full-on day as hospital chaplain… with a smiley lady in a wheel-chair, with a young woman who’s anxious about her terminally ill aunt… Strength and vulnerability came together.

…The story of Mary and Joseph was read: engagement, pregnancy, journey to Bethlehem, ‘No Room!’, birth… Time and again their vulnerability and strength is apparent and clearly demonstrated.

The baby in a manger will become a king. ‘The Word was made flesh’. This morning I’ve been reading Him described as a lion and a lamb; strength and vulnerability.

I’ve been reading ‘Good Night Mister Tom’. When the Second World War breaks out Willie Beach, a sad and deprived child, is evacuated from London to the countryside. Under the care of kind old Tom Oakley Willie changes, thrives, grows up…

The book ends with Willie concluding: ‘It occurred to him that strength was quite different from toughness, and that being vulnerable wasn’t the same as being weak.’

I’m musing…