There is one word which is in my mind as I write this: SOMBRE. No matter the winter sunshine, or fireworks in the air, I will always regard November as a sombre month. My new computer’s spell-check wants me to write ‘somber’. No thanks. I know what I mean.
Some people tell me that they enjoy the light-hearted take on life which this blog normally offers. Good. But not in November.
I have stood at too many war memorials, played too many Last Posts, visited too many war graves, remember too many past Christian friends for it to be anything else.
In the church we recall those who have gone before: All Saints, All Souls. The gospel for All Saints was the account of the raising of Lazarus. An ordinary man.
Abraham Lincoln is said to have commented “The Lord prefers common-looking people. That’s why He makes so many of them”. We can all be reassured by that.
Mentioning one US president causes me to remember the death of President John Kennedy in November 1963, and his memorable words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. And in the month of the COP 26 Climate Conference, we might say, “what you can do for our world”.
Colin Dixon