Necessary Surgery: Dan Snow says: Today, August 12th, in 1865, Joseph Lister was the first surgeon to operate using an antiseptic. Influenced by Louis Pasteur, Lister believed that infection frequently caused post-operative death: ‘His surgeons had to wash their hands, their instruments and the operating surfaces in carbolic acid solution.’
Lister’s death rate dropped; other cynical doctors had to take notice of his methods. Today we readily accept that surgery may hurt, but, in the hands of experts it’s a good thing.
Single-minded Visionaries: Yesterday we learnt that Biddy Baxter, Blue Peter producer from 1965-1988, had died, aged 92. Her inspiration, passion and commitment transformed children’s TV. I remember with warmth Blue Peter’s on-screen pets, presenters’ adventures, charity appeals, model making using ‘sticky-backed plastic’…
However she hurt many of her presenters, who complained that she could be a cruel tyrant… publicly critical… treating them like children. John Noakes described: ‘…a bully who treated me like some country yokel from Yorkshire. I couldn’t abide her.’
Good Memories: On Sunday Pastor-Lou preached on Psalm 137. Jewish exiles in Babylon are thinking of home and grieving. They hang up their harps, sit together, and weep. Unable to sing their much-loved temple worship songs they say:
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.
Lou described good memories that hurt.
Active Love: In Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, the elder, Father Zosima, is talking to a wealthy woman who likes the idea of charitable acts and helping the poor:
‘…Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on stage. But active love is labour and fortitude…’
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