We need pride, in what we do and what we say-decisions that can break a heart or save a day, a simple grasp of the hand or a hug now seems a distant pleasure, as we enter into the realm of the silent dagger.
We need energy, like never before, we need Geoff's scones and a cake off and icey poles and million crackers- to shutter up those cracks that need plastering with midnight dips and where has the soup pot gone?
We need toast, and tea, and time to be,
and a chair to sit down and take in the enormity,
and courage and faith - in one another and in the processes,
We cannot survive as individuals -we must remain a team and intact and a colony of shoulders bolstering the defences, kicking against the pricks, thinking up new ways to be free of this scourge,
I fear personally for my Father, he has just turned 84 and had surgery for lung cancer in the U.K, he is is still in hospital but I feel the worst for him is yet to come.
I cannot see him, my last parent, I cannot touch him, but I can reach out to you lot with my words, and say what it means to be part of a family extant, the family that is closer now than ever before, and will remain so (1.5 metres you bastards!!),
I do like to talk a bit, as is my job, but my hair is getting grey at the thought of the next few months. I would honestly say, it has my buttocks contracting like a pair of raisins, and that is not a good luck for my generous jeans cut- I keep sitting down and missing the chair.
In summary, be nice, be positive, wear your PPE with pride (who knows maybe there will be a Priscilla PPE comp coming soon)
When we get low on energy we will sup from the dragon master,
And when we get through this- you can punch me in the face and call me a gobshite !
The Very Rev'd Dr Graz McTaz