THE ROAD TO GRANDCHESTER

James Runcie’s popular TV serious includes a prequel The Road to Grandchester.

Some interesting thoughts:

• (World War II in Italy) “he realizes that no matter how much they do now, or how swiftly they win the war, this Italian land will never be truly cleared: that whenever the peace finally comes, the weapons will still be there in the fields, to wound and kill the farmers who till the soil and the children who play there.”
• (The law) “People talk of law and order… But to get them the wrong way around.  Order has to exist before there can even be a soil for law to take root and grow.”
• Soldiers in peace are like chimneys in summer. We don’t know what to do with ourselves.
• Prayer of St. Anselm: O Lord, my God, teach my heart this day where and how to see you, where and how to find you…
• In the Messiah, the higher notes in one of the areas I reserved for the words God and Christ.
• The grace of God does not come with a roll of thunder. It is a small, growing, and steady light. It arrives as the dawn comes, slowly and truly, each day a new birth.
• Telling the truth is about as dangerous as lighting a match in a gunpowder factory.

NFL INTRODUCTIONS.  Was he telling the truth or making clever comment? The NFL professional who introduced himself during opening TV credits as graduating from “Thomas Jefferson Grammar School.”.

WAY TOO EARLY. Introducing Christmas TV ads well before Thanksgiving….

FEELING MY AGE.  Remembering an individual called “theTV repair man.” Also, complaining to the salesman for my 2022 Honda that my new car would not start – only to be reminded that it was a hybrid, would not make a noise starting, and would move forward if I simply pressed the Drive button (button, not a gearshift lever) using a fob (not car key).

WEIRD WORDS.

“Duty free.”  What’s the big deal?

“Supplies are limited.”

“Previously recorded.”

“Official  ______ of the NFL.”  The official truck?  Pizza?  Beer?.

ROMANIAN.  Romania is supposedly the one Slavic state with a language based on Latin. Ask Google to download something familiar – perhaps the Lord’s Prayer in Romanian and notice how it is allied to Latin..

UNITARIAN CHRISTMAS CAROL?  For those who like their religion without traditional significance, how about “O Christmas Tree.”

APOCALYPSE? A Johns Hopkins analysis from 2010 is titled “Visions of Apocalypse.” It shows how the three Abrahamic faiths view the “end times” and how this expresses itself in foreign policy and conflict.