And it came to pass that I was wondering what to blog about so I thought I would take a little census of what I am reading at the moment.

These are the bookshelves my lovely Father bought for me the other week and that I built and then filled and then alpha-ordered. Pretty eh?

I am currently reading:
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
reread – really enjoying it.

Confessions – St Augustine sort of for college, sort of for interest

The Bible
Well, you would hope so, given my line of work

Listening Prayer – Leanna Payne

God’s Politics – Can’t remember author
Not getting very far with this

Shaman’s Crossing – Robin Hobb
Stalled because she is doing nasty things to a character I like

I think that is all at the moment.

I have been thinking about the line at the top of the page:

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things; of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings

Today it is the time to talk of sealing wax, and indeed ceiling wax, which is more interesting, being imaginary.

For the record, while on the subject, I do not recommend sending letters sealed with sealing wax through the post in the UK. The automated sorting machines crumble it into tiny bits. This can be avoided by using a padded envelope if it is crucial to send it. Likewise, the little packets of mayonnaise, ketchup or brown sauce that appear in cafes sometimes arrive burst and oozing through the envelope. Teabags, on the other hand are fine to post.

What would ceiling wax be for? What size and shape packaging would it have? Does my ceiling need a waxy sheen, or is it a substance that the ceiling produces analagous to ear wax? I suppose that if I had a panelled ceiling, then it would need to be waxed in the same way a panelled wall or floor is.

If, to take this word association a little further, a ceiling can wax, then surely it can wane too. Perhaps ceiling wax is a phrase used to describe a glass ceiling gliding into place.

Is it a trick ceiling, which whacks you when you make a wrong move?

Enough, I think. Isn’t language fascinating?

In other news, I bought and fitted some clever mudguards to my bike today. I have been looking for mudguards which don’t interfere with the suspension and now I have them. Hurrah!

I notice that if I manage one more post in the next week, I will have posted more this month than in any previous one. I was rather concerned that this would cause me to go completely blank and be devoid of anything to say, but it appears not.

The discussion unfolding on The Cartoon Blog regarding the affiliation or not of Christian Unions and Student Unions has been reminding me of various things.

First of all, I remember that it was in a Christian Union meeting at the age of 15 (I grew up on the campus of a university) that I first realised that this Christianity thing actually mattered, a lot. It completely changed my outlook on church and taught me something about reading the bible as God’s living word and that if you pray, you might get an answer. They also taught me that there are some very bigotted people out there who consider being right to be more important than being compassionate.

When I went to university, I remained on the fringes of the CU, preferring to get involved with chaplaincy things. I did join one of the CU small groups and learned a lot. When I ended up on various chaplaincy committees, we spent a long time working with the CU exec to find ways that we could demonstrate unity as Christians together on the campus. We grew together and set up various social events so we could mingle and get to know each other as individuals rather than as people who did or did not sign up to a particular statement of belief. I was also surprised at the non-democratic methods of appointing a new committee.

After university, I spent a year working in a chaplaincy at another university – one of the most rewarding times of my life, and the time which sowed many seeds that later led to a vocation (actually I typed vacation – not quite the same) to the ordained ministry. Again, I was involved in very rewarding CU-chaplaincy links.

I remain very grateful to the CU for showing me so much that has been so valuable to me, but I am saddened about the mud-flinging that has become evident in the media recently. It is not news – these conflicts have been hanging around for years. I hope that some aspect of God’s love can shine through this, else people will continue to think of Christians (and particularly student Christians) as a lot of argumentative, navel-gazing reactionaries. There is so much richness happening on our campuses, so many ways of expressing our love for God and each other, of learning more about discipleship and growing together. It is such a shame that this is not reaching the news.

My message to CUs (if any of them are watching, which I doubt) – God can work through a democracy too – trust your members. Even if the ‘wrong’ people are elected, great things will be achieved.

While we are thinking about student Christianity, lets keep in mind and in prayerRambling Folkie who has a big SCM gathering this weekend.

In among all the other things I have to achieve on a Wednesday, I fitted in a trip to the local dental hospital. A lovely dentist described in graphic detail how they plan to extract a troublesome wisdom tooth. Phrases like “chip the tooth away from the bone”, “It may come out in lots of little pieces” and “oh, this might cause some temporary loss of feeling in half your face” were used.

Oh good. I am now looking forward to a 5 month wait during which I can ponder this.

Anything is better than toothache though.

If you can’t skive off and go to the cinema on a week day(*) every so often, there is little point in being a student. The screen was absolutely full of students, the elderly and, (inexplicably) several dozen kids of around the age of 12.

We went to see Casino Royale.

Very disappointing.

Mr Farli would like to blog that he is very unimpressed that we had to sit through half an hour of adverts and trailers before Bond. However, he does not have a blog so he can’t! He is also upset with the amount of product placement and unattractive Bond Girl(**).

I was more concerned about the lack of humour and no Q. The casino scenes were very well done, but there was just too much action and not enough cleverness. We both agree that Judi Dench as M is absolutely wonderful.

Come back Pierce, or even better, make Thomas Crown 2 or similar.

(*) I didn’t miss any lectures – it was a study day – so not a real skive.

(**) He may just be saying that because it is me asking

I am being forced to watch Codex on Channel 4. It is more rubbish than you can possibly imagine. Tony Robinson is running round the British Museum in the dark with a group of rather bemused plebs*. They are inexplicably carrying torches and being made to answer questions on Roman civilisation and history. If they get the questions right, they earn letters in a cryptogram. I am losing the will to do anything.

Other than rubbish tv, the day has been good. Church, lunch and then a very productive afternoon building and then filling a bookcase. Nothing like a bit of alpha-ordering to put a smile on my face.

* note appropriate cultural reference

Thank you Daisy.

1. Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 in the book closest to you right now, what does it say?
Well, it doesn’t have 4 paragraphs on page 18. Here is the only complete one.
It will become fairly obvious to the reader that the method and content of theology presented in the following chapters is considerably influenced by Karl Barth’s approach to theology and by his creative reinterpretation of the Reformed theological tradition. At the same time, contributions from both the theologies of correlation and praxis will also be apparent. The ecumenical church has learned – and will no doubt continue to learn – from the methods of Christocentric and correlational theologies. It has, however, only begun to learn from the insights and methods of the contextual and liberation theologies. Writing from a prison cell, Bonhoeffer reflected on what theology and the church should have learned from having been compelled to live for ten years through the horrors and sufferings of the Nazi regime: “There remains [for us] an experience of incomparable value. We have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled – in short, from the perspective of those who suffer.”
Faith Seeking Understanding, D. Migliore

2. If you stretch out your left arm – as far as possible, what are you touching?
An IKEA cabinet from the Markor range

3. What's the last program you watched on tv?
QI

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
3.55pm – it is actually 3.52pm

5. Except the computer, what can you hear right now?
Next door’s radio and the central heating

6. When was the last time you were outside and what did you do?
Yesterday – went to IKEA with Dad

7. What are you wearing?
Dressing gown, slippers and pyjamas – no need to get dressed on a Saturday

8. Did you dream last night? If you did, what about?
Probably, but I don’t remember

9. When was the last time you laughed?
While watching QI at lunchtime

10. What's on the walls, in the room you're in right now?
Paint, a picture of poppies painted by my Godmother, a tapestry of a dragon sewn by my sister-in-law and a Joe Cornish calendar. Also some shelves with books, photos and hi-fi speakers on.

11. Have you seen anything strange lately?.
Nothing comes to mind

12. What do you think about this meme?
Made me want to answer it.

13. What's the last film you saw?
The Devil Wears Prada

14. If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money?
Keep enough for my family to live comfortably and get a good education.
Buy some lovely books
Give a lot away
Invest ethically

15. Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know.
On the day after the 1997 general election I met a man from Antarctica on a train who insisted that I talk to him in French.

16. If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt – what would it be?
Abolish those little canisters of milk for putting in tea or coffee. REAL MILK IN A JUG (please).

17. Do you like dancing?
Barn dancing – yes. watching most other forms of dancing – yes.

18. George Bush?
Who?
Only kidding.

19. What do you want your children's names to be, girl/boy?
Not saying, but I have picked some. Each will have 3 first names.

20. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Yes

21. What do you want God to tell you, when you come to heaven?
Well done for trying – here is where you were going wrong

22. Who should do this meme?
People who have half an hour to spare.

This, from the BBC’s survey on the best place to get a free lunch. I think Alex has seen through the CU’s evangelism strategy.

On my university campus there are frequent free lunches put on by the Christian Union. You get free food then have to listen to a short talk. There’s a small chance you might come out as a Christian but at least you’ll have a full stomach without having to pay!

I love that this is considered to be an acceptable risk to take!

You know when you sit down at the keyboard and aren’t sure whether you have anything to say? Well, I’m just sat here typing waiting to see what comes up.

…

no, nothing. I should be doing some worship planning really. I’ll do some of that and then see if anything else springs to mind.

…

A very generous person dropped a little present into my pigeonhole yesterday. It is a book called ‘Pussyfooting – Essential Dance Procedures For Cats, by Viv Quillin’. Quite bizarre, but very funny.

This reminds me of the Susan Howatch books and where Lewis and Venetia go to very expensive hotels to have non-alcoholic cocktails called pussyfoots. This is then referred to as ‘pussyfooting’.

I was on another quest to find something nice to read last night. I briefly considered re-reading a Susan Howatch, but I couldn’t decide which one, so went for Stephen Fry’s ‘The star’s tennis balls’ instead. Marvellous.

I think that is all you are going to get out of me for the moment. I will return.

Greek – it really is all Greek to me, but as I understand more Greek, the metaphor becomes less applicable.

Learning about moods apparently has nothing to do with being a bit bolshy and snappy. I will know for next time. Actually, I did know that already. I still remember my sense of admiration when I finally understood the passive mood in Latin – such a sense of freedom of having to tke responsiblity for your words. I was not so impressed when I realised that it is generally frowned upon in academic assessment .

Anyway, enough about that. Have a look at the sneezing panda. I defy you to watch it only once.