大象传媒

From the Reverend Richard Coles:

听I was in a restaurant the other day eating alone at a bar, sitting on a bar stool, a nice one, solid construction. Unfortunately, without me realising it, my belt had got stuck on the back, and when I got up to leave, the stool came with me, and I tripped over it and fell, taking with me most of my crockery, which smashed into pieces. It also, awkwardly, pulled my trousers down, and left me sprawling on the floor, my greyest M&S pants exposed to the whole restaurant. A horrified silence fell. It had taken fewer than five seconds to go from a state of nonchalant composure to total humiliation.

Good news: people were immediately, expertly, helpful, getting me up, allowing me to hoist aloft my trousers, brush the crumbs of quesadilla from my jumper, making light of my indignity.听

Two things I observed from this: first, that people are kinder than you鈥檇 think they might be. A vicar being de-trousered in a Mexican restaurant is of course comedy gold, but if people found it funny they managed to contain their guffaws. On the contrary, in that moment perhaps a different circuit fired up, not delight in another鈥檚 misfortune, but a recognition that there, but for grace of God, go I. After all, who HASN鈥橳 lost their trousers in a Mexican restaurant?

Second, that just when everything in your life is going well, all your plans are coming to fruition, and success is assured, without warning something happens and it all comes crashing down.听

I thought of this talking to volunteers from the marvellous St Francis Hospice in Essex this week. All of them had been through that, being hit by unforeseen disaster; a cough which proved persistent, fatigue that didn鈥檛 go away, and a diagnosis that led them, unprepared and undeserving, to a bedside and the loss of someone dear.听

And all of them had found, in their predicament, a purpose: to see that no-one鈥檚 life should end like so much sand falling through an hourglass, but be filled with love and care.听

It is Hospice Care Week; and as someone who has reasons to be grateful for the work of hospices both personally and professionally, on behalf of everyone else who鈥檚 been there too, a heartfelt thanks for the amazing work you do.