Tuesday, 4 November 2025

On Ladies and God and Things.

Today was a day of Lydias, Lady Bs, and a near-multitude of women called Megan. The coincidence of so many Megans suddenly appearing in my life encouraged me to investigate the name. Seems it’s the Welsh diminutive of Margaret and comes from the Greek for ‘pearl’, which is odd because Megans and Margarets are very different sorts of people.

Did I ever mention that my name at birth and for the first eight years of my life was Jeffrey Godwin? If you trace both names back to their Germanic roots, they both mean something approximating to ‘friend of God.’ No wonder it got changed.

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I watched a video recently on the differences between the UK and the USA on the meaning and values of Christianity. She said that in America it’s considered good to be wealthy because it indicates that God is pleased with you. That being the case, I wonder how they circumvent Matthew 19.24. Or could it be that Matthew 19.24 has been redacted from the American version of the canonical Gospels?

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When I went to bed last night I suddenly remembered, for no apparent reason, the film The Elephant Man. In particular I remembered the poignant scene near the end when Mr Merrick decides he wants to go to sleep lying down, knowing that the cranial condition to which he is prey will kill him if he does. That’s why he’s doing it, of course. I remembered the sense of the moment when he said it, and as I was climbing into bed I felt the same sense. I thought it entirely possible that I might not wake up in the morning, but I suppose I must have done because several people waved at me today.

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My Lady of the Day, with whom I’m becoming a little fascinated and possibly even enamoured, is Mary Magdalene.

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