BBC thought for the day

[richbriggs69]

Thought for the Day, 20 October 2009

The Rt Rev. James Jones

I sometimes wonder what history lessons will be like in one hundred years time. Pasty faced children marvelling at tales of milk being delivered to the doorstep at dawn or served in miniature glass bottles mid morning at school; or staring incredulously at pictures of oblong holes in doors where they're told letters were once dropped on to doormats by men and women lugging sacks from door to door. "Letters?" they'll ask their teachers (sorry, learning managers), "what are those?" "Like e-mails" they'll be told "that were written in ink on something called paper, folded and put in red boxes. You know, that small red pillar we saw yesterday in the museum."

Whether or not this will happen and constitutes progress we'll have to leave to future historians. What's undeniable is that the world will always change. How it changes is at the heart of the dispute between the Royal Mail and the Communications Workers Union. Nobody denies that the volume of letters is decreasing and that the amount of mail order is increasing; the issue is how do you bring about change justly and profitably. We are yet again in the midst of a communication revolution. Most people seem to agree about the social benefit of having someone call at your door every day and about having at the heart of your neighbourhood a place where you can go to transact the basic business of living. The postman and the Post Office and even those who deliver milk and newspapers are not just sentimental symbols of a passing era they enhance the quality of life. They humanise otherwise deserted streets. They turn neighbourhoods into communities.

Nobody could possibly argue that they are essential to every society. They're not social absolutes like, say, the family. But in our society they've emerged as a way of connecting and belonging without which we would definitely be socially poorer. The reason their possible disappearance is causing such anxiety is that there doesn't seem to be any prospect of an alternative focus for our sense of community. The nightmare scenario for our society is chronic individualism, which is the hell of living and dying alone. Of course throughout life there are times when we need our own space, some privacy, but few would long to be marooned forever on a desert island even if we were put there by Kirsty Young!

When Christians meditate on God they are fed by a picture of Father, Son and Holy Spirit - a community of three persons. Being made in that image of community is why we crave for belonging, and - to go from the sublime to the ridiculous - why the familiar knock at the door or the welcome over the counter meets such a basic human need.

copyright 2009 BBC

[krussel]

Very nice i like it

What the Rev would make of some of the Youtube comments left by the not so christian public god only knows ? Oh maybe he does after all

[mailman337]

I'll say amen to that, very well written !!!!