It seems that the goodness (the proportion of viable cells) in dried yeast undergoes exponential decay. So maybe the five year out of date packet I tried to use yesterday may have had just a tiny bit of oomph left in it.
Now I have taken another old sachet of yeast and put it in some nutritious flour and sweet water to see if it will undergo exponential growth. Maybe in a few days it’ll be enough to leaven some bread with: you never know.
Meanwhile, I am eating small rolls of neutron bread. Janet very graciously had one, but I am left with the remainder.
COVID-19 is also growing exponentially, but maybe now not quite, which could be a sign of hope. It’s helpful to see the logarithmic plots, but they don’t appear in the media so often as the linear ones.
It’s amazing what you learn from TV quizzes. I used to think that ‘e‘ stood for ‘exponential’, but actually it’s named after Leonhard Euler.
Also, words change their meanings. Now, ‘exponential’ means ‘very rapid’, which is confusing for those who found the original meaning useful. And ‘epicentre’ means ‘centre’, but with more drama.
And ‘social distance’ – what we’re actually talking about is physical distance in social situations. Oddly, there sometimes seems to be a kind of intimacy in online communicating — which is absent when you are face to face talking with someone in church.
We thank you God
for all the ways that technology can bring us close to one another.
We pray for all who don’t have access to that technology,
and ask that they will not be alone.
We ask you to forgive us
for allowing the world to become such a place
that technology can be exploited in bad ways.
God bless all people
for whom today is a day of decision,
a day of parting and grief,
a day to summon up courage,
a day for tears and exhaustion.
May your strength,
and the love of Christ,
and the hope of your Spirit
give energy today.