Friday, March 16, 2007
Red Nose Day and Immortality
In principle, of course, Red Nose Day leaves me cold, though, in the spirit of the day, I am considering a negative bid for Guido's uncharacteristically charitable offer of lunch with himself and one Katy Taylor-Richards - ie he pays me. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, however, raised the tone of the entire thing with an anecdote on his Thought for the Day this morning. At the funeral of Basil Hume he spoke to the Cardinal's chaplain who told him that Hume took God seriously so that he didn't need to take himself seriously at all. That, said Sacks, was the difference between those two utterly opposed types, the righteous and the self-righteous, a distinction that echoes Marilynne Robinson's observation on prigs. Red Nose Day and all such charity stunts attract the self-righteous, but all true comedy is self-deprecating (I include Guido in this) and all true comedians are righteous. A sense of humour, it is said, helps you live longer. It certainly helps you live better and, if Hume is right, may secure you a place in eternity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Though, worryingly, the research that indicated a sense of humour made you live longer was Norwegian.
ReplyDeleteStill,encouraging results. What about Ibsen? He was a hoot. In 1906, after suffering a number of strokes, he was in bad shape. However, on the 23rd May, his nurse assured a visitor to the ailing Ibsen that he was a little better. But, on hearing this, Ibsen spluttered "on the contrary" and promptly died. What timing. Comic genius, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteNone of this explains the ongoing employment of Lenny Henry.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Johnny, I didn't knw he was employed.
ReplyDeleteBook now to ensure disappointment, Bryan.
ReplyDeleteYour analysis of Hume's comment is, of course, spot on. However the righteous can act, unintentionally, in a priggish way - if only due to unworldliness.
ReplyDeleteA good example is Basil Hume himself getting my father rusticated from Ampleforth by snitching to their housemaster that it was my father who had put a live adder in the housemaster's desk draw.
Good grief! A very personal note. Was your father harmed by this event, Recusant?
ReplyDeleteNo. Not at all. He hated school and couldn't wait to get out. It also polished his self-image of the uncontrollable rebel.
ReplyDeleteHe had no bad feelings towards Hume, but did enjoy being able to prick the 'Holy Bubble'. In any case with a horde of siblings who were/are nuns, monks and friars, he well knew that the members of the cloth tend to be a bit 'touched'. As indeed was he,the old eccentric, God bless him.