The Round-up, Edition 4
In this week’s round-up: Thoughts on ‘Philomena’, selling my iPad Mini, the saga of getting Eloise to the doctor, and ‘What is the Bible?’
With the in-laws taking our two girls away for a night, my wife, Rachel, and I had a rare evening to ourselves and the chance to go out for dinner and a movie. It was a toss up between ‘Gravity’ and ‘Philomena’, and ‘Philomena’ won out. I’m glad it did. It was a truly wonderful movie, emotional and, surprisingly, humorous in equal measure. Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan both put in incredible performances, bringing to life the story of Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a world-weary political journalist, who picks up the story of Philomena, an Irish woman (Judi Dench) searching for her son, who was taken away from her decades ago after she became pregnant and was forced to live in a convent. That the story was based on true events left me feeling very angry. How can human beings, let alone Nuns who are supposedly influenced by the person of Jesus, treat their fellow human beings is such demeaning ways? The love, forgiveness and faith shown by Philomena revealed someone far more like Christ than the hard-hearted, bitter, unloving Nuns. When religion gets in the way of love and the person of Jesus, the results are always sickening. The exploration of Philomena’s faith and Martin’s non-faith makes for a fascinating sub-plot to the whole movie.
It is with some sadness that I’ve sold my iPad Mini and replaced it with an iPad Air. I love the form-factor of the Mini—the size and weight make it delightful. The only negative was the lack of a ‘retina’ display. If I was to describe my ideal iPad it would definitely be the forthcoming iPad Mini with retina display. But I’m not going to get that, I’ve picked up an Air instead. Watching how Rachel uses her iPad 3 is the main reason I’ve switched. (For some context, as Rachel isn’t particularly bothered about technology, I always get the new tech products and then, further down the line, pass them on to Rachel. She always gets my one-year old iPhone and has always got my older iPad on the two occasions I’ve upgraded.) Seeing Rachel really make use of the larger screens in ways that I tend not to made me realise that she really wouldn’t get on with the Mini. She’d miss the larger keyboard and the Mini is much less suited to the predominant landscape usage Rachel goes for. So, in order to ensure that when I hand down the next iPad it’s something Rachel will want, I’m switching to the Air. Sacrificial, I know.
Eloise, my four year old, has an ear infection at the moment and so we needed to get her to see her doctor in order to get the prescription she needs for some ear drops. Sounds simple, right? Sadly not. Rachel was on a two day course so she couldn’t take her, which meant I needed to. Because Rachel usually takes the car though—we ‘only’ have one—we had to rearrange all our plans. I would drive Imogen to nursery, Rachel to her course, Eloise to school, and then go and work from home until Eloise’s appointment at 10.30am. 10.15am arrived and I headed back out to get Eloise in time for her appointment. Bizarrely, we nearly missed it as it was such a palaver getting her out of school, despite pre-arrangements. First there weren’t enough staff for anyone to be able to leave the kids they were with to go and get Eloise. Then, with Eloise standing on one side of the fence and me on the other, the staff member couldn’t unlock the padlock and had to go for assistance. Eventually another member of staff managed to get the gate unlocked and she was free and we were able to head off. The doctor checked her ears and then gave us the necessary prescription but, unfortunately, the onsite pharmacy didn’t have the ear drops in stock. So rather than keep Eloise out of school any longer, I took Eloise back before heading off in search of another pharmacy. I did a Google Maps search and followed the directions to the closest pharmacy. I pulled up, only to discover there was no pharmacy there—only houses, not even any other shops at all. So, I picked the next closest pharmacy from Google’s search list, drove there, and—guess what?—that didn’t exist either. Frustrated, I carried on driving aimlessly only to coincidentally—or, who knows, maybe providentially—notice a pharmacy on my right. I pulled over, headed in and handed over the prescription. But, surprise, surprise, they didn’t have the drops either. At that point I just gave up.
What is the Bible? That’s the title to a new series of blog posts by Rob Bell, the Christian author and Bible teacher. He delivers a provocative and insightful take on how, with our 21st century modern sensibilities, we should approach this ancient book. He challenges both those who take every word literally and those who dismiss its relevance entirely. Whether a believer or non-believer, or wherever you are in-between, this is worth a look. How do we make sense of stories like Noah’s flood and Jonah being swallowed by a big fish? With all our advancement in knowledge about how the world works, how should we read these stories? That’s what Rob’s exploring, and some of his views many will find surprising. Or unsettling. Or both.
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