By Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson
I did this as a page back in 2020 when I was getting going and getting used to the process. Only 1 person ever viewed it. So as I am yet again being lazy (I am working on a Nicola Sturgeon post to help kick her on her way out), I thought this might fill in if anybody is bored.
1st July 2020
I have built on the shoulders of giants. Anything I have here in the Tree of Life is down to these men and women. I will struggle to say all the thank yous I would like to, but I will do my best.
My wife for starters. A Noble woman indeed. For her name is Noble or Of the nobility. She put up with me for many years, and has been a helpmate. We have had good fun. Sadly, as I have mentioned, she is not with me in my Cloud. But one day she will be.
And then there’s people, sorry MEN, like John Bunyan. From Bedfordshire. My grandfather, my father’s father thought the county too flat. But I liked it. Good cycling country and prettier than most people might think. I could say more but on another page maybe.
John wrote Pilgrim’s Progress which many will know. Wonderful book, with lessons for Life, for those seeking the Truth.
Hudson Taylor, born in Yorkshire, lived in ‘ull in a very poor district so he could be ‘…devoting himself to the poor and exercising faith that God would provide for his needs’, according to Wikipedia. I read books about him and fascinating they are.
He went to China as a missionary, and when he realised that his European dress was alien to the Chinese, he adopted their dress and even hairstyle, which many missionaries did not at the time. As a consequence, he could win their hearts by removing unnecessary obstacles. Becoming ‘all things to all men’ as someone else put it.
There are some very good quotes of his on the internet which I can recommend.
Or how about George Müller. Born in Prussia, moved to England. To our benefit and Prussia’s, eventually Germany’s, loss. Perhaps if he had stayed….But God had other plans. And Bristol in particular gained by his presence with the establishment of orphanages.
There’s C.S.Lewis from the 20th Century. I have read much of his work, and enjoyed it all. Perhaps I like the Narnia series best. ‘The Last Battle’ seems appropriate at the moment. And there are CS Lewis doodles on Youtube, well worth watching.
And coming up to date, in the 21st Century, there are two women I will mention.
Louisa Young, one half of mother and daughter team under the pseudonym Zizou Corder. My wife and I enjoyed The Lionboy series very much after someone recommended them. The last book again seems to uncannily fit the current scenario with Covid 19.
J.K.Rowling for her superb Harry Potter books. Why anyone should think them not worth reading I don’t know. I have written and thanked her. I said the following:
‘…those books are about faith and hope and love. …. Arthur C Clarke said, apparently, ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. So we might seem wizards and witches to our ancestors…’
And yet again, the last and seventh book is eerily prophetic to what is going on around us. The Ministry of Magic taken over by the Dark Lord’s death eaters, ties in with the UK’s civil service taken over by evil people who like imposing stupid regulations.
On the subject of books, I will mention one other. It is a book containing all the ingredients of a thriller; murder and mayhem, sex, poetry, songs, battles – both victories and defeats – and of baddies and goodies. Some of the last turn good in the end, and some goodies are not as good as they might have been.
Giants too, particularly one Goliath, whom a young shepherd boy felled with a sling shot, then cut off the giant’s head with the giant’s own sword. A boy’s and perhaps some girls (tell me if you are one of those girls) dream.
You will know the Book I mean, and you can search the internet for Goliath to find it if you don’t.
So if you have your own giants to slay, perhaps in your own life, or some injustice in others, try that Book for inspiration. Or any of the others I have mentioned.
For the truth lies in unexpected places.
P.S. I anyone has yet to see this in the COVID 19 war, here’s my link.
The Tree of Life 