Saturday, July 31, 2021

 

2443 steps today – that’s back in the acceptable range. Who knows whether the improvement was in me or the app. C. and I walked around the garden this morning. We had a certain amount of gentle-rain-from-Heaven today, but I doubt if it added up to as much as we need.

 

James and Cathy and their daughter Kirsty are beginning a Scottish pilgrimage today, going first to Kirkmichael. I won’t see them until Wednesday.

 

Comment

 

Jenni from Seattle (comment Wednesday): You’re wide of the mark, on this one. A close family member of mine, dearly loved, is trans. She’s a private sort of person and I hope not to mention her here again. Loving her, however, doesn’t affect the issues about women’s spaces and women’s athletics and roles reserved for women, e.g. in  short lists . It is a great pity that everything has become so heated and political. I wish we could all be as open and cheerful as Grayson Perry – although I know he’s not strictly relevant. I was a great fan of Jan Morris, too. Like your partner, she knew she was in the wrong body at an early age, but nevertheless married and fathered, I think, five children, before transitioning in her 40’s.


Today is the feast of St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. 

5 comments:

  1. What interesting comments! Thank you for the reading recommendations, I love fantasy and will try DWJ. Also About Martha. I don't think Jesus scolded her for "cooking and doing the dishes" but for resenting Mary's interest. I love the dialogue by Dorothy Sayers!
    Jane from Illinois

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    1. Agree, Jane - I think it was for resenting Mary's interest. Something that helped me with this was A. S. Byatt's (commissioned) ekphrastic story on the Vasquez painting "Christ in the House of Martha and Mary" - her story has the same title. I've used parts of it as a four-part reading in informal worship. The painter tries to show the Martha character (a cook) the spiritual avenue open to her through her appreciation of, and creativity with, food - if she can put aside her resentment and open her eyes. It's in Byatt's "Elementals" collection. Like the Prodigal Son and the parable about the workers who started late getting the same wage (I used to have such difficulty with that one), these stories are there to challenge us, I think.

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  2. And Jean, what a graceful response to the trans comment. I have a dear trans friend who has of course been through a lot, and I see the case many feminists are making. Let's hope we can all work through the justified bitterness on both sides.

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  3. All human life is certainly here.... I was much enlightened by reading "Trans" by Helen Joyce which had been reviewed in "The Times". It seems to me extraordinary that a public figure cannot state the obvious without incurring such wrath. These are interesting times.

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  4. Anonymous2:26 AM

    Sorry, my Comment for today re St. Ignatius etc. ended up under Friday's Comments. Sometimes my computer is very slow bringing up the current day and I don't always realize it. Chloe

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