Afghanistan: The Great Game

I have just watched Afghanistan: The Great Game - A Personal View by Rory Stewart
and I recommend ity highly. You've only got a few days left to watch it on BBC i-Player.
It's in two parts:  Episode 1 and Episode 2

My favourite quote was by an Afghan now living in Britain who said 'Its really easy to  get into Afghanistan; it's just the getting out part that's really difficult"

It was fascinating to think that this country of Afghanistan, which is on the one hand so barren, yet on the other so strategically placed, has been the stomping ground of Super Powers.  Rory Stewart explores this, looking at invasions in the 19th century by Britain, 20th century by Russia and in the 21st century by the US-lead coalition.  

The words of Pete Seeger's  'Where have all the flowers gone?' sung by Joan Baez  come back to me
'when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn .... ' 

Rublev's Trinity - 'Troitsa' - Moscow

In our devotions Cathy read Rowan William's poem simply entitled 'Rublev'

The title is referring to the famous Andrei Rublev, the greatest master of Russian icon-painting, (14th century). The poem is Rublev's icon of the Holy Trinity, which shows the persons of the Trinity as angels seated together around a table. It is in the Tretyakov gallery in Moscow. Known as Trioitsa in Russian, there is an explanation of the deeper meaning of the icon .

But back to Rowan William's poem

One day, God walked in, pale from the grey steppe,

slit-eyed against the wind, and stopped,

said, Colour me, breathe your blood into my mouth.

I said Here is the blood of all our people,

these are their bruises, blue and purple,

gold, brown, and pale green wash of death.

These (god) are chromatic pains of flesh.

I said, I trust I make you blush,

O I shall stain you with the scars of birth

For ever. I shall root you in the wood,

under the sun shall bake you bread

of beechmast, never let you forth

to the white desert, to the starving sand.

But we shall sit and speak around

one table, share one food, one earth.

Rublev, Rowan Williams, from The Poems of Rowan Williams

Lev Tolstoy: Reflections on his spiritual journey

In our sacred:space Tom and Mike shared on the Life of Tolstoy and some of his spiritual writings.  Here are a smattering of quotes from a great evening:

 

 

The only way to be happy is to love, to love self-denyingly, to love everybody and everything, without any rules; to throw out from oneself on all sides, like a spider, an adhesive web of love to catch in it all that comes: an old woman , a child, a peasant, a policeman.

Treat others as you would like to be treated Luke 6:31

All great revolutions commence in thought. Let but a change take place in people’s thoughts, and new deeds will follow, for action will follow the direction of thought as certainly as the ship follows the direction of the rudder.

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. Luke 6: 27,28

The principles of true religion are simple, universal, intelligible and clear. There is a God, the origin of all that is; there dwells a spark from the Divine in each person, and this spark can increase or decrease, depending on how we live; to increase this spark we must suppress our selfish wants and egos and grow in love; the practical means to attain love is to do to others what you would have them do to you.

The distance we have gone is less important than the direction in which we are going.

A river that is deep does not make waves when someone throws a stone in it. The same applies with you.If you get angry at insults thrown at you, you are a puddle.

To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well. Luke 6: 29

The only person who doesn’t fall is the one who doesn’t strive towards anything. Fall a thousand times, and get up a thousand times, and if you don’t despair, you will make progress.

As long as I have food I don’t need when someone else has none, or have two coats and someone else has none, I share in a constantly repeated crime.

Give to everyone who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again.
Luke 6: 30

Wealth should be like manure in a field. When it is in a big pile it makes a bad smell. But when it is distributed everywhere across the field, it makes the soil fertile.

Remorse is like the cracking of an eggshell or a grain of corn, as a result of which the seed starts to grow.