In prepping another Writers from the Vault episode for 2RPH I came across a monologue that I hadn't thought about in three decades. In the prologue to Henry V, a character named 'Chorus' enters, and proceeds to tell the audience that the play they are about to see involves vast armies, battles, foreign locations and so forth. But alas, you will have to use your imagination, for here we have only a bare stage and 'this wooden O.' So, go to it.

In Branagh's film of the same play, the Chorus is played by Derek Jacobi, who gives a masterful performance throughout. I decided that I would use the opening speech for the next Writers program, but, having watched Jacobi again, have no hope of coming anywhere near his magical level.

But I am not an actor, merely a cipher for the works of others. And contentedly so.

 The elderly man holding 'The End is Nigh' sign as passers-by give him a wide berth is very much someone who is ridiculed, being either mad, fanatical or plain foolish.

And yet, budding eschatologists can hardly have missed the plethora of end-time signs can keep popping up with increasing frequency. Sure, it is a fraught business and we (I speak here of Christians) are encouraged to tread carefully, as only God the Father knows the actual time in human history when the curtain will fall.

Still, the last 100 years or so has provided much to muse about - two world wars, the invention of atomic and nuclear weapons, the amazing emergence of Israel as a state after a two and half thousand year hiatus, the increasing fragmentation of international relations, the faster pace of life, the rise of AI, the threat of climate change, the scourge of illicit drugs....It just goes on and on really and provides decent material for the consideration of anyone interested in a Biblical interpretation of the end of history.

It is unwise to be drawn into making predictions or claiming the fulfilment of prophecy. But it is certainly wise to pay attention.

 FIFA have hinted that they might be interested in expanding (yet again) the number of teams playing at World Cup Finals every four years. So far we have moved up from 16 (the original formulation) to 24, to 36 and currently, 48. The figure they have in mind, apparently, is 64 nations. Why? 

The answer we keep getting is equity and participation. After all , look how well minnows Cape Verde did as a result of the most recent expansion. Don't we want more of that?

Of course, the truth is far less idealistic. It's all about money and FIFA wants a lot more of it, which they would get in spades with a bigger competition.

Surely a better idea would be to allow all of the current list of FIFA men's rankings - 211 nations in total - to participate in the finals competition. That way, all the pesky qualification rounds could be eliminated. The duration of the tournament would likely be a few months so FIFA could make a packet from sponsorship and advertising and broadcast rights.

Come to think of it, it might be prudent to add in a few extra places, bringing the number of participants to 220, to account for nations that currently don't exist, or potential colonies on the Moon and Mars.

 Lately I have been 'camping in', my expression for living in a house that has no running water. On Sunday a pipe attached to an outside tap burst and I had to shut off the water at the meter. I can draw a little water for a bucket-full but only for a minute or two. There is, of course, no hot water as I shut off that service too as a precaution.

Luckily, the girls are in Melbourne for a few days. I can cope with the inconvenience but I doubt that they could. I do enjoy the somewhat spartan manner of heating a jug and sitting in a thimbleful of warm water in the bath. 

The plumbers are here and having a hard time of locating where the gal pipe meets the copper, the better to shut off the former. This house is old and jerry-built and nothing conforms to any proper specification so they will have to improvise. I hope things are resolved today for the sake of my family, who will be home on Friday.

The FIFA World Cup has proceeded to the knockouts (Round of 32) and already, heavyweights Germany and Holland have fallen. The Germans, like the Italians before, are an excellent tournament team but have curiously departed early over the past decade. I suppose no one nation can be on top forever, but there must be something going on in German football for this to occur.

England continue to underwhelm and narrowly beat DR Congo this morning. Since 1966 they have been the perpetual bridesmaids of the WC despite having some excellent talent at their disposal. I suspect that if they could bottle some of the Socceroos grit and determination and administer a dose before every game, they might have won won silver by now.

As for the latter, they play a very good Egypt side in a day or two and will need to figure out how to deal with Mo Salah, who is apparently fit to play. Salah had a very patchy season with Liverpool but is a match winner on his day. Egypt are more than Salah of course but this is probably his last WC so he will be determined to make an impact.

On your guard Socceroos!

Much has been written recently about the renewed appeal of extreme political doctrines in Western liberal democracies, including Australia. It may be that we are now a sufficient distance from the end of the Second World War (1945) and the Cold War (1991) for a kind of amnesia to take effect.

As a high school student in the 1970's, I was only too well aware of the lessons learnt from the last great conflagration, particularly the defeat of fascism. There was also the horror of the Holocaust, which proceeded almost clinically from Nazi ideology.

The Cold War highlighted that other extreme - this time on the left - communism, or at least, it's application. While some folks in democracies flirted with Soviet or Maoist Communism, the majority of people did not think kindly of a system which enslaved its people (in all manner of ways), was authoritarian and frankly, incompetent.

My advice to young people who may, for very good reasons, be disillusioned with liberal democracy, is to go back to very recent history and read the accounts of good people trapped in these bad systems, the stories about imprisonment, the massacres, forced starvations, threadbare existences, hopelessness and so forth.

Fascism and communism are pernicious ideologies propounded by fanatical ideologues, none of whom should be running a country. Human life comes second to whatever the 'plan' is. Better to focus on reforming the system we have, not return to a very dark past.

 Mary’s Song

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast

keep warm this small hot naked star

fallen to my arms. (Rest…

you who have had so far

to come.) Now nearness satisfies

the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies

whose vigor hurled

a universe. He sleeps

whose eyelids have not closed before.

 

His breath (so slight it seems

no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps

to sprout a world.

Charmed by dove’s voices, the whisper of straw,

he dreams,

hearing no music from his other spheres.

Breath, mouth, ears, eyes

he is curtailed

who overflowed all skies,

all years.

Older than eternity, now he

is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed

to my poor planet, caught that I might be free,

blind in my womb to know my darkness ended,

brought to this birth

for me to be new-born,

and for him to see me mended

I must see him torn.

Luci Shaw

The poet enters the imagination of Mary, mother of Jesus. She reflects upon the miracle of her pregnancy, the amazing fact of God in her womb. Yet the poem ends with the understanding of where it will all end - 'for him to see me mended/I must see him torn.'