It’s Sunday. A day of reflection. A day when mentioning God might not be too controversial. Naturally, I might not do that in a conventional way. A train of though linking one or two events.
If I go back to my school days. Don’t worry it’s what happens when you click 65. Foolish reminiscences of day that are falling into the history books. Yes, when the 1970s are history. In the true sense of the word. Now, erudite historians chew over the earth-shattering events of my childhood. I didn’t know until this week that the Kennedy shooting in the US coincided with an event relevant to my growing-up. Adventures in space and time. The first broadcast of Dr Who.
Before I digress too much, what I was thinking about was a teacher. Johnny Rayworth. I’m unsure about the spelling of his surname name but you get the idea. To a class of misbehaving boys, his retort was: “God’s on my side. Clarence” Basically, don’t be silly boy you have no agency in my classroom. He called everyone Clarence. I suspect because he couldn’t remember names or there was some association that is lost in the mists of time.
He was one of several war years teachers at my school. This portly gentleman had a wooden leg. His subject – technical drawing. It seems remarkable in 2025 that boys were taught drawing 50-years ago. It did me no harm. My first job was in an engineering drawing office.
Evoking God as a way of saying this is good. That’s got a lot of mileage. Because the BBC like to do reminiscence too, I have a catchy lyric running through my head this morning. “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” gets repeated over and over. A simple song that started life in 1973 with a British rock band called “Argent”. They are long forgotten. Their legacy is an undeniable example of good works. The world is a better place for an uplifting song or two.
The internet is full of a lifetime of Groucho Marx quotes. The man was a master of the one liner. As an American comedian a lot of his lines sum-up the American experience but there’s a universality to them too.
This last week, however generous my thinking I’m inclined to say that we can all take generosity beyond its limits. Like the man says: “Be open minded, but not so open minded that your brains fall out.” As much as a few may say that the international trade tariff avalanche is a long-term attempt to do good in the US, the evidence points to a collective act of brains falling out.
There’s an abundance of Trump memes scattered about social media. The one I like the most this week is here.
John Vincent 