Design

Boxing Day, 2020, at least according to some calendars.

This day in UK, at least, traditionally is for recovery from the excess eating, cooking if you have that joy or burden, washing dishes if you have that one ...modern gadgets like dishwashing machines are said to help ... giving and or receiving gifts, unwrapping them excitedly, trying to pretend you are surprised to have got the very thing you asked for ... or delighted to have received something you are bitterly disappointed about, nurturing dark thoughts about the motives of the giver maybe ...though such cynicism on the part of the blogger is much too dark for the normal story of peace on Earth for all the world ... which would be nice, Earth being the planet most of us seem to live on, the world, all of which is said to be a stage on which each human plays ... and not only one role but many parts within each lifetime ... each of us at the centre in our own minds, as well as playing supporting roles in the roles of others, not always as supportive as they imagine, but undermining the vital central role of each individual, being the best version of humanity they can be, through some need to suck out the energy of another ... often a close relative or lover .. oh dear! the toxic games we play on Earth in Life School ... the Dracula story springs to mind, not for the terror as much the energy sucking ... the poor old Count is so short of his own reserves he deserves our compassion ... just don't play the part of his victim all the time, especially if you sense your own energy is waning. ..

But that's all psychology of human relationships and not required on Boxing Day ... there's enough of it yesterday as toxic families gather together to pretend to enjoy the love and family connection... and many families I hasten to add, really love the chance to spend the day together in harmony ... or would in normal circumstances ...

For readers waiting to hear about yesterday's Christmas Day in the Church Hall, please ignore all the preceding nonsense and skip to a magical story as told by your old blogger, playing his part enthusiastically to forsake the Silence not stoically but with joy whilst trying to avoid the trap of playing the central role ... mostly successfully maybe, I don't know, you need to ask the others in the play about how they perceived the show! Hopefully, there will be a video coming soon, made by Ruth, an essential young person attending specifically to ensure a record of the Star of the Show, as designed by the others in some perceptions at least ... you'd better ask them again ... Mary, living more than 90 years already, high in the hills, was enjoying what she says may well be her last Christmas, with a small but perfectly social distanced cast, at least by table design, more or less ... though nobody round the table seemed bothered about such nonsense ... before getting to Mary, let's look at the other players in the Christmas Story. ..

Arthur, well past 90, still walking about the village, talking to the people, sometimes taking services, for which he's ordained, CoE department, cheerful albeit waning a little, maybe another player who may skip next Christmas, who knows?
Janet, Arthur's wife, rather younger and very spritely ... a dancer and no longer fully subscribed to the old stories, CoE, Wesleyan, RC or any other version it seems ...
Mick the Hat, from the smaller village just East, incomers from East London, widowed husband of Gloria, his saviour, who came along, oxygen bottles and all, to enjoy the company of the locals in her final years ... she made Mick promise to look after Howie, the little dog, who also attended, wandering about under the table in search of scraps of turkey ... !
Counting Mary, the only truly local round the table, that's four ... add the blogger, keen to join the table as participant not observer or helper ... and a friend of mine at deeper level, Dawn, invited to attend as helper, an artifice to have her there, round the table, to play some part unspecified before but revealed during the Show ... in unearthly fashion, a sound arising from Beyond with deep lyrics sung without recognisable tune yet touching such depths the rest of us were stunned into Silence, applause would have seemed inappropriate and I, for one was choking on tears ... which was nice!

Supporting cast amongst others: Jane the chef, providing far too much food as usual, not present this time ... her Mum, Beryl and Jane's brother Andrew, served up the food, and though invited to make use of the two places laid, to join the rest .. which Andrew did briefly ... they seemed to enjoy the illusion of a posh dinner at a beautifully prepared table, white cloths and berryful holly as centrepiece, with servants wearing masks to protect the important guests ...;
Geraldine and Gillian, stalwarts of Wheels to Meals, on other family duties on Christmas Day, who arranged the table the day before and generally organised things behind the scene ...;
Ruth, who came to film the highlights, who came up with the idea of a community lunch for the elders, alone on the special day and persuaded her Mum and Dad to enrol their friends to cook and serve, which they did for two or three years before handing over the reins to pagans, supported by other Christians behind the scenes. ..apologies for the vagueness, but in some intervening years the blogger was on other duties in Spain or Portugal, wandering about for no particular reason ...

Well, that's nearly enough for now ... let's just say, on the question of design, that just maybe, given all the variables, and all the coincidences, what if the whole thing was designed to put Mary centre stage? Or Mick or any of us? It seems to point that way ... but who is the designer?