Thought for the day 24 September

As has been much remarked upon, it is now 6 months since we went into lockdown. I remember at the time someone saying something along the lines of ‘I don’t know what the fuss is all about. It’s going to be reviewed in 3 weeks. So we’ll get back to normal after that.’ Now the talk is of possibly six months more (should we add ‘at least’ into that sentence?) There are all sorts of areas of life where we try not to acknowledge symptoms, or face reality. Then a day comes when we have to do so, and it’s hard. We have to acknowledge that we and others are challenged by facing that reality, but we also need strategies and support to face it down and move on – which may mean openly expressing our feelings with someone else, listening constructively to someone else’s concerns, and trying to work out a way forward together

Lord, help us through the coming days, weeks and months. Help us to acknowledge our feelings and be ready to share them with others; to be ready to listen constructively if someone opens up to us; and to be able to work through coping strategies together

Bonnie Prince Charlie & the Jacobites 1715-46: Mary’s son, James VI, united the English and Scottish crowns, but Stuart rule in both led to continual rivalry and discord. In 1688 James VII and II fled abroad when William of Orange landed.James and his supporters in both countries hoped that with foreign (ie French) help James, or his son (James VIII and III or the Old Pretender depending on your point of view!) or his grandson (Charles Edward Stuart, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie) would become king again. There was a Jacobite* Rising in 1715, but it fizzled out without achieving much. More serious was the uprising led by Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745-6. He had effective rule in Scotland, but his invasion of England petered out and he was defeated at Culloden.Fear of Jacobite attack led the government to rebuild the Castle in Dumbarton as a fort, and in the Act of Union of 1707 it was named as a place that was to be kept garrisoned.*The Latin for James is Jacobus, so his supporters were called ‘Jacobites’.

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