My little Gnudren,

Old Gnu is minded, in this season of goodwill, that people of goodwill are still in the majority on this planet. One little episode is worth recounting to illustrate the veracity of this in the city of Bristol – and Bristol must be fairly typical of conurbations in the UK.

Just recently elderly retired former colleague, in an absent-minded moment left his wallet on the bus. It contained £200 in cash besides the usual other important items.

He eventually went to the lost property office at Bristol Bus Station without much hope; the obvious first thing to do. And lo and behold! The wallet had been handed in, with everything in it and every penny of £200.  He was, in the words of C.S.Lewis, “Surprised by Joy!” [Dear Reader, please note that C.S.Lewis’ book of this title is not about finding your wallet.]

When chatting with the person on duty my colleague asked if wallets were normally handed in with all their contents correct and present. O yes, was the reply; apparently that happened in the majority of cases. Those who came to enquire usually went away happy and relieved.

You may rightly say that it’s no good how many good people there are in the world if the people with wrong and destructive intentions are in power. A few can cause global conflict and disaster.

And so, we are often paralysed by the state of the World and what we are doing to the Environment.

We should rightly be concerned and engaged in the struggle to avert destruction and disaster, but not paralysed.

From first hand pastoral observation Old Gnu observes the following, though you may say that he may have a warped experience. The most difficult situation for any individual to face is to be debilitatingly unwell and not know the cause. Especially if the quality of life and ability to physically cope is undermined day after day and month after month. When there is a diagnosis, we know where we are. There is firm ground on which to move forward. Either to work towards a possible recovery with the right treatment or course of action,  or to make the most of the time left to us here on earth. In this situation despair is a pointless option and only brings misery to yourself and those around you and sucks out the net amount of positivity in the world. Our topping up of positivity and affirming Goodness needs to be commensurate with the negativity and often warped info churned out by the Media.  Because then will there be fertile ground for things good things to happen.

As far as the well-being of the world and planet is concerned, we have a good diagnosis of what is wrong. How to address the wrong is a far more complicated task.

But there are things we can do, however small, every day to lessen our detrimental impact on the planet and the wellbeing of others.  Apart from being mindful of our use of material resources, here are some other things:

Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.

O Lord, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in forgiving that one is forgiven,
it is in dying that one awakens to eternal life. 

[written by some Italian geezer from the medieval era who made a tremendous impact for hundreds of years after he lived who apparently may have looked like this:]

No, he isn’t given instruction pre-take-off

Old Gnu firmly believes in injecting happiness and hope, and positivity wherever possible. We must do battle with the Media that is hell-bent on paralysing us with the latest crimes and disasters. We are all of us related to generation[s] of youngsters below us. For Goodness’s sake let us fuel them up with hope; or we will be debilitating them by being generic ‘grumpy old men’.

We are here because there was a Big Bang! Mr. Hawking, one of the most brilliant scientists that ever lived gave us that insight. Something came out of nothing. Mr. Hawking believed there was a mathematical equation to explain the Something that came out of Nothing. Some of us deluded folks think that God was behind the mathematical equation. And us Somethings which came out of Nothing are certainly not beyond his/her control. Perhaps we’re due another Big Bang.

Cheers.

Vetus Pater Gnu
Musicorum et Theologia
Turris LA
XIV Mensis Decembris MMXXV