Triathlon...

Lots to tell from the last week but I'll start with my first Triathlon in about 13 years.

Last Sunday morning at 9 o'clock I was in Salisbury starting my swim. Now, I had been observing the previous wave (no pun intended) in the pool clambering out as they finished. They seemed to be struggling to even get out of the pool! Pathetic, I thought, but all was to become clear - the swim finished at the deep end, hence you couldn't "jump" out of the pool - I thought I'd never get out! It took all my strength to drag myself up and out :-D
So, off I ran out of the pool into the rain (which wouldn't stop for the whole race...) and across to the "transition area", a.k.a. muddy field, where I'd left my bike earlier. But I couldn't find my bike. A fellow competitor had left his bike shoes on my bag and so I ran straight by. Twice. Oh well! I did find it in the end - shoes, number, helmet, bike and go. 20 miles later I arrived back in the mud and then couldn't find where my stuff was. Again. Oh well! So, change shoes, switch number to front, cap and shades on and......hey, what happened to my legs!! Where are they?? I know I have legs because I can see them but can I feel them? Nope! I'd forgotten that particular feeling, legs like numb bricks. Still, I managed to "run" (the word "run" here is open to broad interpretation, including: "squatting whilst wiggling legs and moving along slowly in great pain", for example...) the 4 miles to the finish and savour the achievement of finishing, hurray!

I came 101st out of 200 and my brother (who came 5th at Sevenoaks) says he's very proud of me :-) I do not think he's being funny.

You should notice that I have added "Triathlete" to the bit about me now.

Lessons for next time are pretty obvious - make sure you know where your bike is!

Oh, and apologies to the man who was next to me who now has no goggles. I do now have two pairs, but it wasn't me and I didn't do it. I hope you find a good deal on some new ones.

God the artist...

(Comment on Gene Simmons another time, still trying to crystallise a sensible comment...)

Just been watching Newsnight Review again and I found myself asking the same questions I do each time I watch. Here we have the great(ish) and the good(ish) discussing a film/play/book in, what seems to be, absolute terms.
From whence does the criteria for excellence arise?

Well, of course, as a Christian I believe that all creativity comes from God and hence (as all of us are created in His image) we have an innate recognition of this creativity as an expression of God the Creator.

What makes me wonder is this: what makes one thing "good" and another "rubbish"? Take films, for example, and I love watching films - big screen, surround sound, full immersion experience. But films are easy, aren't they? That film was "good" or that film was "rubbish". Theatre, it seems to me, is another ball game as are books . Listening to Newsnight Review I'm left thinking that these people claim a grasp of something that slips through my fingers - the way they talk so earnestly about, in this case, a play and seem to know whether the production was right or wrong, good or bad, absolutely.

Take Jackson Pollock. I look at his paint dribbles and think, hmmm, not so tricky? But if I tried it would look like a preschool accident (you may think JP's work does indeed look like this!), and yet there really is something there.

In my case, take the song writing process: what makes a melody line or harmony or lyric right or wrong? Opinion? Something much deeper, I think.

A reflection of God as Creator placing a part of creation in each of us - when we hear it or see it we just know.