I have been recently working on the issue of irony for my new book. The ironic gesture allows us to engage in an activity while simultaneously ridiculing it.
Two of my favorite comedians (the great Mitchell and Webb) brilliantly expose the problem with this in the following clip. Enjoy.
As my latest book progresses I thought I would offer you another little sample (between us of course). This is a story that I wrote to explore the themes of the first few chapters. Again I will hold off from commenting on its philosophical connotations. All reflections welcome,
There were once two lovers who would spend each waking day together. At the same time every day the man would stop what he was doing, look his beloved in the eye and say, ‘Tell me, do you love me with all of your heart’. And each day he would receive the same answer, ‘yes, my dearest, I do’. He would then follow this initial question with another, ‘But tell me, do you really love me’. To which he would receive the same reply, ‘yes, my dearest, I do’ .
Eventually the woman tired of this ritual and thought to herself, ‘if I am really to convince him of my love then I will need to give him access to my deepest inner thoughts. Then he will know and not doubt my honesty’. So, later that day, she went to a well known wizard who lived on the outskirts of the city and asked that he concoct a potion that would enable the drinker to hear another’s inner voice.
The wizard accepted the challenge and told her to come back in three days with a bag of gold coins. When she returned he took the money and, in exchange, gave the woman a small veil full of odourless liquid.
The next day, like clockwork, her beloved stopped what he was doing and asked his girlfriend, ‘Tell me, do you love me with all your heart’?
However, instead of answering she held the veil of potion up and asked that he drink it. He accepted this small gift and, upon swallowing it, found that his ears where opened and that he could now hear the inner thoughts of his beloved. As he leant in close to her he heard, as clear as the sound of church bells on a still summer morning, a voice emanating from her mind. And what did he hear?
‘Yes, my dearest, with all of of my heart I do’.
The young man paused for a moment, then looked into her eyes all the more deeply and said, ‘Yes, I hear what you say, but still I wonder, do you really love me’
There were once two lovers who would spend each waking day together. At the same time every day the man would stop what he was doing, look his beloved in the eye and say, ‘Tell me, do you love with all of your heart’. And each day he would receive the same answer, ‘yes, my dearest, I do’. He would then follow this initial question with another, ‘But tell me, do you really love me’. To which he would receive the same rely, ‘yes, my dearest, I do’ .
Eventually the woman tired of this ritual and thought to herself, if I am really to convince him of my love then I will need to give him access to my deepest inner thoughts. Then he will know and not doubt my honesty. So, later that day, she went to a well known wizard who lived on the outskirts of the city and asked that he concoct a potion that would enable the drinker to hear another’s inner voice.
The wizard accepted the challenge and, in exchange for a bag of gold coins, gave her a little veil full of an odourless liquid. Sure enough, the next day, her beloved stopped what he was doing and asked his girlfriend, ‘Tell me, do you love me with all your heart’?
However, instead of answering she held the veil of potion up and asked that he drink it. He accepted this small gift and, upon swallowing it, discovered that his ears where opened and he could now hear the inner thoughts of his beloved. As he leant in close to her he heard, as clear as the sound of church bells on a still summer morning, a voice emanating from her mind. And what did he hear?
‘Yes, my most dearest, with all of of my heart I do’.
The young man paused for a moment, then looked into her eyes all the more deeply and said, ‘Yes, I hear what you say, but still I wonder, do you really lov
I have been busy working on my lastest book and so have not been posting much up on my blog of late. Sorry about that. However I can say that I am very excited about how the new book is shaping up. I am currently working on some reflections on Hitler, Mother Teresa, Columbo and Mel Gibson. However right now I am writing on the deep theological significance of the following anecdote that I remember from the home where so much of my heart still lives. Can anyone guess the point I am making with it?
There was once a British army base located in a tiny town in rural Northern Ireland. The story goes that each time a new battalion of soldiers arrived to do their tour of duty one of the resident Officers would show them a trick that could be played on the hapless locals.
When the latest group of soldiers arrived the Officer brought them down to the local pub for a drink. When they were settled he got out an old twenty pound note and a one pound coin. As the soldiers watched he crumpled up the twenty pound note and polished the pound coin before placing them on the table. Once he had done this he then scanned the bar for one of the oldest and drunkest men in the place, and called him over. When the local had settled himself the Officer said, ‘I want to give you one of these, but which would you prefer, this bright shiny coin or this old crumpled piece of paper’?
In response the old man picked up the coin, bit into it with his teeth and then exclaimed with delight, ‘I’ll take the shiny coin please”. The soldiers, of course, found this hilarious and started trying it with others. The foolishness of the Irish provided them with endless hours of entertainment.
However there also happened to be a tourist in the bar that night who watched what was taking place in disbelief. When the soldiers had left, she went up to some of the old men and exclaimed, ‘why on earth did you take the coin when you could have had the note? Do you not know that it is worth twenty times more’?
‘Of course we do’, replied one of the locals, ‘but if we took the note they would stop playing’.
I am currently in Seattle hanging out with some of the students from Mars Hill Graduate School. Due to a few problems with my website I have not been able to update my speaking schedule. So thought I should mention here that I am giving a public lecture tomorrow evening (10th) entitled:
When God doubts God: Some thoughts on belief, metabelief and doubt
This will take place at 18:00 in the school and will be followed by some Q&A and an interview. For more information visit the facebook page.
My friend Jon Hatch from ikon reminded me that it is St. Nicholas’ Day (the patron saint of children and prisoners). He also pointed me, via facebook, to the following story that he describes as, ‘an act of resistance in his name, restoring the insurrectionary power to the Christian message’.
The police were called on the patron saint of children and the imprisoned today, as he tried to deliver Christmas gifts to children at a detention centre.
The inspiration for the modern day Father Christmas, St Nicholas of Myra, was turned away at the gate of the Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire when he tried to deliver presents to the children locked up inside for administrative purposes.
Jolly Old St Nick brought with him £300 worth of gifts donated by several London churches for the estimated 35 children currently detained.
Dressed in a red robe, long white beard, and a bishop’s mitre and crook, and accompanied by the Rev Professor Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian at Westminster Abbey, they hoped to spread some St Nicholastide cheer among the children of migrants detained there.
The atmosphere became rather less jolly when the Home Office authorities who run Yarl’s Wood refused permission for St Nicholas to enter the Centre to distribute the gifts to the children.
Despite the authorities having agreed to accept the gifts, St Nicholas was met at the gates by a group of unidentified security guards who barred his entry and ordered him to leave the area.
They later called the police as St Nicholas blessed the gifts. The gifts were loaded into an unmarked van by staff who refused to provide a name, number or receipt for the gifts. St Nicholas asked one “guard” his name and the man said “write down ‘Father Christmas’”.
St Nick said, “If this is how visitors are treated, I just shudder to imagine what else transpires inside Yarl’s Wood.” While police questioned the St Nicholas team, taxis and delivery lorries made their way in and out of the place with many smiling and stopping to greet the Saint and his companions.
In the afternoon, when St Nicholas returned to make a pre-arranged and approved social visit to two families currently detained, they were informed at the gates that their visit had been cancelled. They were handed letters from Dawn Elaine, the Contracts Manager at Yarl’s Wood, informing them that permission had been revoked because of “concerns about your conduct” when the gifts had been deposited that morning.
The action was organised by the St Nicholas Society and CITIZENS for Sanctuary, a coalition of 13 national faith organisations representing 7 million people to promote a Sanctuary Pledge at the 2010 General Election.
Prospective Parliamentary Candidates across the country will be asked to back the Sanctuary Pledge, which includes a commitment to end the detention of children and families for immigration purposes.
“St Nick has never been turned away from anywhere before. So I was extremely disappointed not be able to hand deliver the gifts to the children detained at Yarl’s Wood today. I hope the kids realise that they will be firmly in my prayers on St Nicholas Day when I preach at the Royal Naval College chapel in Greenwich.”
Canon Professor Nicholas Sagovsky said: “This was about bringing a moment of joy to kids locked up in a deplorable situation. I can’t help but contrast the smiles and wonderment on the faces of the children that St Nicholas visited at a local primary school this afternoon, with the sad fate of those kids who will be locked up in Yarl’s Wood over Christmas. People of goodwill must make sure that their prospective MPs sign the Sanctuary Pledge at the next election so that next St Nicholas’s Day there will no longer be innocent children detained here at Yarl’s Wood.”
St Nicholas’ next visit after Yarl’s Wood is on December 5th when he will parade through the streets of Canterbury with Archbishop Rowan Williams.
Peter is the founder and co-ordinator of Ikon (a community which describes itself as iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging and failing) as well as being a writer and freelance lecturer in Philosophy
