Change is in the air and, despite cold weather in December; the number of carol singers in Pauntley was up yet again as was attendance at Christmas services throughout the Benefice. Because of this, and despite church heating systems, I expect even more readers will remember how ecclesiastical flagstones can bring a numbing wintry chill to one’s sole.
The onset of arctic feet can be deferred by the prudent use of men’s long woollen socks and Marks & Spencer used to stock an exciting range made in Britain. However, in recent years it has become difficult to find long woollen hosiery for men and, as Leicester and Hinckley no longer make them, all our socks come from China where cotton short socks, and small feet are the norm.
When I mentioned this dearth of long socks to a friend in The Feathers in Ledbury she peered down her nose and asked why I needed long socks? To which I heard myself replying, “So that I can turn them down because there’s no point in turning down short socks.”
This explanation brought a chuckle but it also got me thinking of what, in addition to sock turning, are other routines that govern our daily lives. There is no doubt that some habitual routines make life easier, but do they also have a down side which can deter us from making beneficial changes?
It is not only humans who have routines, and at times during the year my wife wishes that our sheep would restrict their ablutionary habits to the fields rather than our sheds and concrete standings. Unlike humans however, sheep do not have the ability to change their habits, and so I guess mucking-out will continue to be one of our regular routines.
Talking of human routines however, reminds me that during my teenage years many people in our village went to church or chapel but critics, who in those days called themselves ‘Free Thinkers’ said that we teenagers went out of habit and not because we had thought things out for ourselves. How different from today when the situation has changed and the majority do not go to church. This makes we wonder if today’s ‘Free Thinkers’ put the same argument to today’s majority. Does a majority always follow the fashionable crowd I wonder? The playwright George Bernard Shaw certainly thought so for he said, “The minority may sometimes be right but the majority is always wrong”.
Early in my career when I worked as an industrial engineer I was told that, “If you want to change anything; anything at all, at some point you are going to upset people and meet resistance. “Ideas and change will be opposed and at times things will get personal, so you’ll have to learn how to deal with it.” Sure enough I did upset people but as I was educated, trained and employed to make changes, I learned to cope with the strain and pressure.
I was advised how to deal with others who resisted change, but during life have also found that there are lessons to be learned when trying to change oneself.
Changing oneself is not a new thing and the writers of the Prayer Book understood the problem very well. They even coined one of my favourite phrases which asks God for, “Time for amendment of ways”. These writers knew that it takes time to get out of an old routine and into a different way of life.
Talking of routines however, reminds me that even our favourite hymns or carols can be quoted without too much thought: A friend of mine swears that just before Christmas he heard a disc jockey on Radio Gloucestershire say that he was, “Going to play a recording of a local school singing the carol, Gabriel’s Massage.”
He then went on to tell me that the December edition of the Stroud News and Journal carried a report of a carol concert in Minchinhampton which told readers that, “The choir gave a fine rendition of Jungle Bells.”
View from the Pew 