I seem to have lost a day. Somewhere in my head, a day has been skipped. I say that because right now in my head, today is All Souls’ Day. But it isn’t. All Souls’ was yesterday.
For about a week I’ve been doing the joined-up thinking in a world full of pumpkins. As The VicarTM, I get the privilege of ‘holding’ the spirituality of the place together. And there is a lot of emphasis on celebrating the prequel to All Saints’ and All Souls’. And I really enjoy it. One year I was whatsapped a photo of my friend’s baby crawling around in the kitchen with 8 legs like a tarantula. I digress…
So it is with all of this in mind that I found myself in Ash Green School this morning leading an assembly. With All Saints’ as our theme we talked about heroes who inspire us. I was expecting a lot of Marvel characters – and the first one was Spider-man from a year three boy and it came complete with the webshooting hand gesture! Then a young girl in year two gave the second answer – my family. Then a boy in year five gave us all a description of exactly how his uncle was an inspiration to him. Once again I was reminded that the world would be a much better place if we put the kids in charge of it all. They get it.
As we talked about All Saints’ Day we thought about the people who inspire us to be the best people we can be when we grow up. I talked about heroes of the faith who inspire us on our Christian Journey. And I told them that when I grow up I want to be like Desmond Tutu. After seeing this photo, one of my closest friends always refers to him as “your mate Des”. Archbishop Desmond Tutu inspires me to be a better Robb. To stand for justice in all circumstances no matter how hard it is to do that. Which is where we got to in Assembly and did some singing.
However, today is All Souls’ Day [in my head]. As I have just done an update on the Church Website, I have been uploading photos from the place where all things important are stored – the desktop. On my desktop there is this photo of a [luxury] miner from just outside Edinburgh who died four months ago. I love this photo. It was taken at my brother’s wedding. Dad loved to dress up smart. He would always pose for the camera whenever he was in a fancy suit. He taught me to be a better Robb. He taught me to laugh, to love, to kick his butt at snooker, how to grow pumpkins at the allotment and how to drink beer. Today is All Souls’ [in my head] and I am sure that my Lord will cope with a candle that is lit a day late as I remember with Him my dad.
Tonight I am going to go to the pub and raise a glass to him as well. After all, it is All Souls’ [in my head].