Trigger’s Broom

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In the BBC sitcom ‘Only Fools and Horses’, Trigger’s a road sweeper. He’s received a medal for saving the council money. He’s had the same broom for twenty years, because he’s looked after it! Trigger explains… It’s had seventeen new heads and fourteen new handles. ‘Trigger’s broom’ has become a famous part of British comedy.

The question is, ‘Is it the same broom?’

On a TV quiz show on Monday I learnt that this is a modern-day version of the ancient Greek ‘Ship of Theseus’ paradox. Theseus’ ship is in the harbour. They want to preserve it, so one by one, over many years, they replace wooden planks as they get rotten. Eventually all of the planks are replaced. Question: Is the ship in the harbour still the ship of Theseus, even though none of the original wood remains?

Perhaps it is. Perhaps it isn’t.

Apparently, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes developed this paradox. He imagines that Theseus keeps the rotting timbers. As the original ship’s repaired, he builds a second boat with the planks he’s removed. In the end he has two ships – one repaired and one rotten.  

There are now four possibilities: The repaired ship is Theseus’ ship. The rotten ship is Theseus’ ship. Both are his ships. Neither is.

Image:Art by pastillustrator.

This morning I read… Jeremiah’s watching the potter working at his wheel… ‘…the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.’

It’s again about changing identities: is it one lump of clay, or two different pots?

Musing on this paradox…

…Friends, family members I’ve seen grow up… folks who have changed over the years… physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually… Are they the same person they used to be?

…I sometimes say, ‘I’m not the man I used to be’. Is that true?

…I believe that the divine potter, ship-builder, broom operator, can, will bring positive change to our person and identity if we let Him.

13 thoughts on “Trigger’s Broom”

  1. Julie and I have certainly completely changed from the egotistical people we were when we first met.  Even when we had our first mortgage, we still managed to spend at least a quarter of our salaries on clothes.

    I hated school and although I managed to stay in the top class in a grammar I left with none of the success my father had hoped for.

    It wasn’t until I went to college under the auspices (yes we all know the joke) under the auspices of the then GPO Telephones that I realised I loved learning.  That also made me realise, later, that lots of boys, especially like me, were not mature enough to understand the benefits of study.  That certainly influenced the way I dealt with challenging boys as a teacher.

    Also, when our first child was born it was as if a switch flicked in my brain switching me from narcissistic to complete carer for my family.

    So, I retired a very different man from that scallywag of a lad of sixteen.  The young lad who always wanted to play the clown and turn a head in his coquettish apparel.

    My biggest regret, however, is not being able to tell my dad, and the post-war teachers who thought whacking a bamboo cane across my backside would be efficacious, that I retired with six sets of letters after my name.

    But, when I say I am the not the same boy, of course I am.  But I have learnt and gained from experience.  I honestly believe that by living through the vicissitudes of life Julie and I have had to deal with we have evolved into two quite philosophical caring old people.  Unfortunately, one is never given enough time to really appreciate it, another lifetime for instance.

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  4. The original ship is still the same one. Sailors say the boat has a soul. Brit Leo Sampson Golten bought the Tally Ho in 2017 and has rebuilt it by replacing about 80% of it. He is staunch that it is still the Tally Ho. The Tally Ho won the Fastnet Race in Britain in 1927, and Leo plans to race it in the 2027 Fastnet Race. I watch his podcasts. He just crossed the Atlantic in it. 🙂

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  5. Great post. I thought it was just going to be a humorous but inconsequential one but it turned out to be very profound.

    I love how humbling and yet dignifying it is to be clay in the hands of the Potter. May we be jars of clay who carry the treasure of his gospel to the world!

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