Diverted a little way from my morning walk to pick up a boring parcel; inkjet ink – not even coloured inkjet ink, but black. This will be used to print out things we’ve written and things other people have written to us. I hope it will be used sparingly, so as not to overuse earth’s resources (or our money).
God bless this ink.
We thank you because we’re free to communicate.
We thank you because there is technology
that helps us communicate
when we can’t meet face to face.
We ask you to help us to be mindful of the planet
when we decide whether to print something out.
God bless our friends and colleagues;
bless all the people whose concerns
are reflected in the words and pictures
that this ink will make.
God we thank you for ideas,
and for your big idea, the Word,
that we see spoken in the life of Jesus.
More freedom guff in the media yesterday. I don’t think we understand what a troubling idea freedom is: for we also need to be constrained by care for our fellow human beings. Absolute freedom has contradictions. We can’t be free to enslave people. If people in the name of freedom cut down forests, then re-employ the displaced people on tiny wages, where is the freedom? Freedom depends on choice – but how many choices are actually free? – there are pressures. We can’t always expect people to decide freely whether to end their own lives – because there are bound to be pressures on them. How many times do women appear to consent to sexual acts without really being free to do so? Are you free to consent when you’re young? You can’t legally consent to sex when you are 15, but can apparently be held responsible for being lied to and pressured into going to join a band of terrorists at the same age. Freedom as understood in present-day capitalism depends on ownership and money, but these are constraints on freedom. Free choices depend on good information, but we are also free to lie on social media, in mass media, to our friends and to our colleagues. Free societies (and we can’t do any better) are also potentially unstable – because people are free to express opinions which would lead us down the path to authoritarianism and enslavement.
As ever, the rich are more free than those who are in poverty. I don’t need to repeat the old music-hall song to that effect.