Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou is a biblical scholar and broadcaster.
My experience over the last four weeks
echoes many of the points of discussion .
I visit an elderly people’s ward infused with death .
Inhabited by the now less than human because
they cannot articulate their needs .
I go to be the voice of a man who is the father of
my children .
On the bus trip home I pass a pub called the Valentin where I had a meal with some one I
loved dearly .
He has been dead for 23 years yet over the
last bit of time I feel him near .
In a tiny box I have a lock of his hair.
I ride 2 buses home with the dirty cloths last night I got in and there was a pair of trousers
covered in shit .
They send this out of hospital SHIT
I meet many people at the bus stop
Mothers who must leave one baby twin
who is gravely ill to take his twin sister
and other two Children home .
I told her I would ask for prayers to be offered
for her baby and her face lit up.
Because I believe that it is our compassion
our ability to reach out to one another when
everything seems gone that defines us.
What is this where a mother weighed down
by her own pain can still have a moment of
concern for me.
I choose to honour life .
I believe if we could all try to do this
we could greatly reduce suffering .
Death is Life.
It’s our one certainty .
It is life we honour
Many times as a child I attended open casket
funerals every one gathered in the front room
eating raising a glass .
We did not fear death we embraced it .
I was so happy to listen to this podcast this morning .
My experience over the last four weeks
echoes many of the points of discussion .
I visit an elderly people’s ward infused with death .
Inhabited by the now less than human because
they cannot articulate their needs .
I go to be the voice of a man who is the father of
my children .
On the bus trip home I pass a pub called the Valentin where I had a meal with some one I
loved dearly .
He has been dead for 23 years yet over the
last bit of time I feel him near .
In a tiny box I have a lock of his hair.
I ride 2 buses home with the dirty cloths last night I got in and there was a pair of trousers
covered in shit .
They send this out of hospital SHIT
I meet many people at the bus stop
Mothers who must leave one baby twin
who is gravely ill to take his twin sister
and other two Children home .
I told her I would ask for prayers to be offered
for her baby and her face lit up.
Because I believe that it is our compassion
our ability to reach out to one another when
everything seems gone that defines us.
What is this where a mother weighed down
by her own pain can still have a moment of
concern for me.
I choose to honour life .
I believe if we could all try to do this
we could greatly reduce suffering .
Death is Life.
It’s our one certainty .
It is life we honour
Many times as a child I attended open casket
funerals every one gathered in the front room
eating raising a glass .
We did not fear death we embraced it .
I was so happy to listen to this podcast this morning .