Our harvest festival Old Testament reading was from Joel who spoke of God sending rain. Lots and lots of rain; the early rain, the late rain and then he followed it up with abundant rain. I could not help chuckling as I thought that Joel could well have spent this summer in Gloucestershire.
Rain meant many agricultural and steam-engine shows were cancelled and so rural folk missed opportunities to catch up on news and gossip. However for those who like to sing, the autumn choral season brings opportunities to socialise and clean out dusty lungs.
A year ago, I mentioned research which showed that choral singers live longer on average and that this is because the extra air and blood flow beneficially stimulates our whole bodies. And so this year I hope that Bob May and Sara Poyser choirmasters of Dymock and Redmarley respectively, are ready to welcome a rush of new members eager to extend their ‘three score years and ten’ by another ten-plus. An extra 17% of life assurance just for singing in a choir and listening to a few sermons is a pretty good investment I reckon.
I ought to say that any reader who says they cannot sing is deluding themselves. Everyone can sing! But like everything else some are better at it than others. However the thing is that a choir can produce an amazing effect which is better than the sum of its parts. Occasionally magic happens when the combined sound absorbs the odd note every singer makes from time to time.
But I digress and so back to the weather. Parishioners know this has been a poor year for fruit and root crops. Supermarket buyers have pushed more family farms out milk and, although lamb prices have been good worries about the Smallenburg virus meant that we have delayed lambing till February next year in the hope that cold weather will kill the carrier midges this year. As for apiarists, my own bee colonies did quite well, but those with larger numbers report that queen bees are few in number and so problems with pollination may arise next spring.
Lack of sunshine and soggy ground has meant a reduction in quality hay and straw, and global commodities such as wheat, maize and coffee are in short supply. All this means that an increase in the food bill is inevitable and livestock farmers are already seeing 20% rises in the cost of animal feed.
Commentators say that some families are already “in food deprivation”, and so churches have organised a food bank depot in Newent to help local families through difficult times.
Despite present difficulties life is better than it was! My great grandfather who was born in 1864 would be familiar with many of today’s problems, but he would be shocked by those people who say that debt can be paid back by borrowing more and that spending more than you earn is the way forward.
He would however have accepted that education is critical to a fulfilled life and he took an avid interest in making sure that I was taught to read. He valued the variety and meanings of words and was very keen on spelling. I guess he would have chortled at the CV I recently received for the position of Assembly Operator at a Cinderford factory.
The applicant wrote that he felt “suitably qualified” because his previous post was that of a “Shrink Rapper in Lydney.” On reading this my mind instantly shot into a state of frenzied expectation.
Was he a psychiatrist who performed street poetry to a rhythmic drum beat or could he be someone who wrapped NHS psychologists in giant sheets of cling film?
Alas: I shall never know as we gave the job to someone else.
View from the Pew 