A Day in the Life

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Yesterday we saw King Charles…

…meeting Andy Burnham at Buckingham Palace, inviting the leader of the Labour Party to become prime minister and form a new government.

…visiting Cambridge Central Mosque, Europe’s first eco mosque, saying, ‘I pray with all my heart that you… continue your work together with other faiths in this area to set a remarkable example of integrated faith activity.’

… engaging with researchers and industry leaders, opening the new £58 million Whittle Laboratory, that’s seeking to become the world’s leading research centre for jet engines and power generation.

I wondered… A day in the life of King Charles?

I remembered the Beatles underrated song, ‘A Day in the Life’. John Lennon starts: ‘I read the news today oh boy…’ It’s about the death of Guinness heir Tara Browne. Lennon writes three verses… A day in the life of celebrities, politicians…

In contrast Paul McCartney reflects on a day in his life. ‘Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head…’ Ordinary stuff. Being late, rushing to catch the bus, drinking a cup of tea, smoking a cigarette…

I identify more with a day in McCartney’s life than that of a King or a Guiness heir…

Yesterday Andy Burnham promised to build ‘a new national sense of unity, of common purpose and positivity…’ He talked about a ten-year plan for Britain, but what will a ‘Day in the Life’ of ordinary Brits be like?

This morning in Isaiah I read about people who only want to hear pleasant things: ‘Don’t tell us what is right. Tell us nice things. Tell us lies. Forget all this gloom.’

Isaiah also speaks of the voice heard through adversity, ‘Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.’

My prayer this morning… for ‘This Day in My Life’… to focus on right things rather than nice things… to have listening ears, to hear the voice directing me down the right path.

5 thoughts on “A Day in the Life”

  1. When the Beatles split up in 1970 I wondered whose music I preferred.

    I listened to Uncle Albert and Band On The Run by McCartney. And I listened to Give Peace A Chance, Imagine and Working Class Hero by Lennon.

    It was, as they say nowadays, “a no brainer”.

    I sincerely agree with the sentiment “to have listening ears, to hear the voice directing me down the right path”.

    I remember a line in a play I did in about 1978

    “Postmortems always produce marvellous pieces of hindsight”.  It’s a bit of a get-out clause for doing the wrong thing I suppose. 

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      1. The trouble is that McCartney later said that he wrote “A Day In The Life” on his own. Did he really need to write that?

        And I think everyone knew that Sgt Pepper’s was completely drug induced.

        I personally was never offered drugs although we went to the Flamingo Club in Wardour Street and the RamJam Club in Brixton.  And I never tried drugs as a young blade. However, I do wonder what absolute mind-blowing visions were experienced with people who took LSD.

        I took a French trip with the head of French at the school I was at in the 90s.  He admitted to me that he had taken LSD regularly in the 60s, and it was pure then, and he said he still had horrid flashbacks.  Awful stuff!

        But, and I cannot really express much of an opinion, but can life, for some young people, sometimes seem so pointless that their only way is the use of drugs?

        I will not quote Karl Marx’s “Religion is the opium of the people”.  That would probably be a wee bit obvious.  However, I feel we all get through this one in our own way.  I have no idea if my way is the right way.  All I know is it feels the right way, if lacking a little something at times.  

        By the way, I wish he’d taken the VAT off of heating oil as well though.

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