Who is your favourite poet? A surprising number of people might say the Scottish poet William Topaz McGonagall, some of whose original works are to go up at auction today.
I say surprising because Wm McGonagall is widely believed to be the worst poet in the English language. He frequently had listeners throw vegetables at him during performances and eventually died penniless.
His classic text is a poem called the Tay Bridge Disaster, after one of Britain’s worst rail disasters in 1879. It starts like this:
Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.
‘Twas about seven o’clock at night,
And the wind it blew with all its might,
And the rain came pouring down,
And the dark clouds seem’d to frown,
And the Demon of the air seem’d to say-
“I’ll blow down the Bridge of Tay.”
When the train left Edinburgh
The passengers’ hearts were light and felt no sorrow,
But Boreas blew a terrific gale,
Which made their hearts for to quail,
And many of the passengers with fear did say-
“I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay.
And it basically goes on and on and on in this vein (and arguably gets worse). On the other hand, it has indeed been remember’d for a very long time. You might want to watch this to get the full effect, it makes me laugh every time.
So why is it that some nationalities like to WIN at all costs, whereas others like to be, well, a bit crap?
On Mother’s Day, which was Sunday, The Observer ran a story in which Abdel-Qader Ali attempted to justify (apologize for, in the “give an explanation” for sense) the fact that he and his two sons beat his 17 year old daughter Rand to death on March 16th this year.
Rand, who was studying English at Basra University, was deemed to have brought shame on her family after becoming infatuated with a British soldier, 22, known only as Paul.
…
‘Death was the least she deserved,’ said Abdel-Qader. ‘I don’t regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion,’ he said.
Today Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (who has managed to pop up on my radar on multiple justice and compassion related issued over the last little while) expressed his regret for the disprespect and lack of honor accorded to returning Australian Vietnam War veterans. In February, Kevin officially apologized to the stolen generations of native Australians.
It reminded me of a recent post by Julie Clawson in which she asks “Should Christians apologize (for the behavior/words of other Christians?)”
By “apologize” in the title, I mean “express regret for” and also “Accept some responsibility for”
I rather suspect such apologies can be powerful catalysts for healing and MTWABP, both on the personal and the group level.
So I’m wondering–do you have any stories you can share? Of giving or receiving such an apology personally? Or of giving or receiving such an apology in a larger group sense? I’d *love* to hear such stories.
Or … is there such an apology that you would *like* to be part of giving or receiving?
in the English language, according to research among 40,000 participants, including 7,000 English learners, by the British Council
Tomorrow is very likely the last Mother’s Day I’ll get to spend with my mother. So I’d like to officially say:
I love you *and* like you, mom. You inspire me.
Filling out the top 10 were:
1. Mother
2. [...]
Once again I am confused. Today, 200 people were arrested in New York during a protest. The protesters were demonstrating against the April 25 acquittal of three New York City police officers who fired their guns a total of 50 times at 3 unarmed men in the early morning hours of Novemeber 25, 2006. One [...]
So it is a very very dark time in Myanmar–with tens of thousands dead from Cyclone Nargis, which made landfall on May 2nd.
Along with all the dark truth about how this is going to very negatively affect rather a lot of people in Burma, which is #132 out of 177 on the Human Development [...]
By Pam Hogeweide
“I think religion is a bad idea,” announced Off The Map’s Jim Henderson at last year’s Seattle conference.
“I think the worst idea of all is that we (Christians) are supposed to be a world religion,” he further explained.
The heartbeat of Off The Map is open minded communication: “We want to create dialog in [...]
