Life, Death and the Delicate Balance

Musing on two conversations…

Yesterday Jack said that in any marketing programme don’t dwell on the negative but accentuate the positive… selling carpet cleaner you move quickly from dirt removal to the clean, sweet smelling final result. On Monday Chris said that I mention death too much in my blog; he wanted something more life affirming.

In Sunday’s harvest service at church… It’s more comfortable thanking God for the harvest and that we are well-fed, than it is to remember those in our town that are hungry, or those in our world who are starving… gratitude and concern, sufficient and inadequate, life and death… the delicate balance.

This morning I read of Jesus and the royal official… Official says, ‘My son’s close to death… come before he dies.’ Jesus says, ‘Your son will live…’ Servants come with news that his boy’s alive…

Jesus talks about ‘life in all its fullness’ as well as ‘taking up your cross’… healing and sickness, enjoyment and suffering, life and death… the delicate balance

In ‘The Fatal Englishman’ WW2 fighter pilot Richard Hilary explained the origin of the expression ‘Going for a Burton’ – meaning meeting with disaster, being ruined, destroyed, or killed.

…Referring to Burton, Staffordshire, where much British beer was (and is) brewed, ‘Going for a Burton’ implied that the pilot was at the pub, enjoying a beer… a euphemism for the reality that he’d been killed in action… rather than talking about death, they’d refer to something more life affirming.

Yesterday’s local news included the launch of the new Caister lifeboat. It’s already saved nine lives. Crew member Paul Garrod said, ‘A lot of people go out and collect stamps, but we go out and save lives.’ …Saving lives, not preventing death.

The lifeboat was named, ‘Annette Thurlow’ after a former nurse who died suddenly. Her husband Dick Thurlow was  a previous coxswain, son Richard is a current coxswain, and son Aaron is a crew member. Even in the lifeboat’s name we remember life, death and the delicate balance.