By: WolfieWolfgang (Colin Bell)

WolfieWolfgang (Colin Bell) — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:45:31 +0000

Thanks for that Malcolm – maybe it's time for some of those things that are loosely included in the word "young" – it's never too late.

By: Malcolm Kemp

Malcolm Kemp — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:59:29 +0000

Your comments resonate with a conversations I had with two friends over an exceedingly long pub lunch yesterday. With me were a lady who, when I was in the nursery class of the Infants' School, was a young trainee nurse who poured cod-liver oil and orange juice into my mouth each morning and was responsible for my first agreeing to join Sunday School,and also a much younger priest whom we both know and who, on the face of it, can sometimes appear silly and immature and yet, from experiences of his own life, can be immensely perceptive, helpful and pastorally supportive and encouraging. As Ecclesiates noted in his writings, there is nothing new under the sun. I suppose we have all experienced youthful enthusiasm, excitement and a feeling that we can do things better than those before us and make the world a better and more enjoyable place. What came out in conversation yesterday is that we all also have had to deal with sadness, unfulfilled ambition and situations we would have preferred to have avoided. On the other hand without those apparently negative things we wouldn't be who we are today, wouldn't be so able to help others now and would be less able to empathise with the problems of others. Yes, I dearly wish I could have known 30 or 40 years ago what I know now so that I could have done things better but I, for one, find being older infinitely more enjoyable and rewarding than being young but, as has been said many times – including by me and certainly by my friend Mary yesterday – I was never young because I had old parents and no siblings.

Comments on: All You Need Is Love

By: WolfieWolfgang (Colin Bell)

By: Malcolm Kemp