Wonderfully so to you all, and never far from becoming sumptuous. An extra special helping of splendour must be ladled in the general diretion of Evilmomlady. Hers being the reply which left the rest of you conspicuous in your absence!
Having recently spent an inordinate amount of time in bed, recovering from various Christmas ailments, brought on no doubt from the overly excessive familiarity the captain of my future took in the finely balanced oldblog finances.
anyway,once my head had drained itself of more undesirable fluids than are found in a municipal swimming bath. and the listening bank started shouting I felt the time had arrived for a further foray into the interweb. Spurred on by the reply I received from that dear poppet evilmomlady (of whom I wonder which part is evil, which mom and which lady?)and feeling a thing of beauty in my confident vermilion pyjama suit, I am drawn to the keyboard.
As Oldblog edges his uncertain way past the season of no light, no sun, no warmth, no leaves, no joy and no green, to paraphrase happy old Thomas Hood. My meanderings are confronted by blasphemy.
The odd laws of this great land of ours often languish for centuries in a time sealed vault where they can fester away unrepealed. Adhearents of various religions may be interested to know that blasphemy laws were used in this country, and others, in times of tyranny. Times when the slightest questioning of the obvious lies which formed the foundations of the Church and State might have caused the whole house of cards to collapse. The Church and State fed us lies for centuries ( and still does!)but needed the kind of laws that Starlin showed himself expert in to keep the truth at bay.
Living in a modern secular society, the Church, Synagogue, Gurdwara, Mosque, Temple has no power over our lives in the old sense.So whom is the blaphemer offending? Surely not God,who, it must be accepted, as the inventor of laughter and of all things,is quite big enough to handle a joke without some humourless cleric springing to his defence.
No, in my mind blasphemy can only threaten those whose faith in their religion is weak, and whose beliefs are insecure. A lifetime's commitment to a church is a noble thing, and those who embrace their faith with strength will find that the jibes of the unfaithful glance off them harmlessly; but those who doubt it, or who have allowed the glory of rank, politics and favour within the Church to mean more to them than their faith itself, will certainliy quiver with baffled vanity and scared outrage at every joke or squib.
But what of my religion? I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance. And every day I am sorely,grossly, heinously and deeply offended, wounded,mortified and injured by a thousand different blasphemies against it. When the fundemental canons of truth,honesty, compassion and decency are hourly assaulted by the fatuous, illiberal and ignorant, what recourse to ancient laws have I. None whatever, Nor would I ask for any. For unlike these blistering imbeciles my belief in my religion is strongand I know that lies will always fail and indecency and intolerancce will always perish!
But I am feeling weary now. So let these hideous foaming buffons rant. Let them clap their warty hands over the mouths of those who would speak, let them be consumer by their own vanity; the Oldblog blood/alcohol level has fallen to a perilous low, and I have a bassoon lesson in half an hour.
If you have been, may the force be with you.
