What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Thanksgivingukkah

    Double blessings today. Blessings upon American friends celebrating Thanksgiving and blessings too on Jewish friends celebrating Hanukkah. It is very unusual for the two holidays to coincide. The last time was in 1888. The next time will be in 70000 years. (I know, that does seem incredible but calendars are calendars).

    I was in the States last year for Thanksgiving. It is a slightly odd festival to observe as a single non-American to whom the feast has little meaning. For me it meant thinking very carefully about how I was travelling at that time as so many Americans try to fly around the country that airports are very busy, often at a time when weather is tricky. In the end I settled on spending Thanksgiving on an island in Florida and hired a bike to explore a wildlife park for alligators and other extraordinary things and sat on the beach looking at snowy egrets and pelicans.

    The thing that really surprised me was going to church on Thanksgiving morning and discovering that it was a harvest festival. Somehow I hadn’t made the connection at all.

    As for Hanukkah, we had readings from the first book of the Maccabees last week at Daily Prayer in the Scottish Episcopal Church. So the swashbuckling exploits of Judas Maccabeus are fairly fresh in my mind. We only get anything from Maccabees once in the two year cycle of the readings at Daily Prayer. Always make me realise that there is so much from Jewish history that I don’t know that much about.

    Anyway, to everyone celebrating today, many blessings.

    And yes, it really is 70000 years until these two festivals will co-incide again.

    , , ,

2 responses to “10 Things I learned from being a General Election Candidate”

  1. Father David Avatar
    Father David

    Your second point about people knowing almost nothing about the democratic process was demonstrated admirably in a recent television programme called “Educating Joey Essex”. The young man in question who came to fame via TOWIE interviewed three leaders of Political Parties – Messrs Clegg, Miliband and Farage (Mr. Cameron declined to be interviewed). By the end of the programme Joey had learned that Parliament was an institution rather than a person.
    May I add an eleventh point to your list of ten?
    In American Presidential elections it is often said that the candidate with the most hair usually wins (that bodes well for Hillary Clinton). I will stick my head above the parapet and say that the leader who wears a tie (i.e. Looking most Statesman like) will become Prime Minister. Throughout the campaign Mr. Miliband has consistently been seen wearing a tie and a smart suit while Mr. Cameron has been seen wearing an open neck shirt with rolled up sleeves and Mr. Clegg similarly attired with open neck shirt and a casual blue jumper. I therefore foresee that Ed Miliband will gain the keys to Number 10 following tomorrow’s General Election. Despite protestations to the contrary he will probably do so with the assistance of the admirable and formidable Nicola Sturgeon who is also a model of sartorial elegance. however my theory is at its weakest when looking at the way the leader of Ukip is also similarly smartly attired but thankfully and mercifully Nigel hadn’t a hope in hell of winning! Mind what does it say of our electoral system is the SNP get 5% of the vote and are rewarded with 50 seats and Ukip get 10% of the vote and only win 2 seats? Having said that, I’m still a first past the post man.

    Reply
    1. Tim Avatar
      Tim

      I’m still a PR chap but that scenario is a great argument in favour of FPTP 😉

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • Synod Blogging 11 – Friday Afternoon

    Lambeth Conference. We heard about the possibility of provision of hospitality for Bishops coming to the Lambeth Conference. There is an opportunity to host bishops, wives (and presumably concubines) who are coming to the LC next year. If they come. If you want to have a bishop, you need to make requests for them. I…

  • SynodBlogging – 10 Mission and Ministry

    “45 % of our congregations are less than 20 in number when they gather on a Sunday.” Anne Parkhurst retires from the Overseas Committee. She is replaced by Duncan McCosh. Retirement Homes. As usual Braeburn is in a good state,whilst St Serf’s does not seen able to produce projected figures to help make decisions about…

  • Synod Blogging 6-Canons

    John Richardson introduces the debate. We are back to our hobby – reforming Canon 4. This is the canon that deals with the election of bishops. We love revising this. We do it often. Aberdeen have proposed an amendment but then have to be encouraged to propose it. Indeed, they don’t. The changes to Canon…

  • Synod Bogging -9 Friday Morning

    In the surreal film version of General Synod, everyone arrives this morning wearing name budges, each of which says “I am Lexie Plumtree”. In reality, the day begins with the presentation of the Golf Cup. There is a rumour in the benches around me to the effect that next year it is going to be…