Steepholm's Dream Diary: 31

I woke in a strange place this morning. Well, strange, to me - it was actually the clean and friendly Holiday Inn in Bolton, but the point is that it didn't have internet for the laptopless, so the dream diary has had to wait until evening, with the result that I remember very little of the wild phantasmagoria that filled my sleeping hours. However, this remains...

My brother is explaining his ideas about the afterlife.* According to him, everyone goes to heaven and lives in bliss for eternity. Actually, though, there is one proviso. You are not allowed to wonder whether this happiness is ever going to end. If you do, God will notice and be so offended at your lack of faith in the infinitude of his benevolence that he will promptly cast you into the pit.

I'm not very impressed at this vision, which makes heaven sound like a very tense place indeed, and God far too touchy for comfort.


* This is quite out of character.

Steepholm's Dream Diary: 31

I woke in a strange place this morning. Well, strange, to me - it was actually the clean and friendly Holiday Inn in Bolton, but the point is that it didn't have internet for the laptopless, so the dream diary has had to wait until evening, with the result that I remember very little of the wild phantasmagoria that filled my sleeping hours. However, this remains...

My brother is explaining his ideas about the afterlife.* According to him, everyone goes to heaven and lives in bliss for eternity. Actually, though, there is one proviso. You are not allowed to wonder whether this happiness is ever going to end. If you do, God will notice and be so offended at your lack of faith in the infinitude of his benevolence that he will promptly cast you into the pit.

I'm not very impressed at this vision, which makes heaven sound like a very tense place indeed, and God far too touchy for comfort.


* This is quite out of character.

Bolton Wonders

Last night I had the chance to look around Bolton for the first time, and was very taken with the statuary in the main square. Some of it was the kind of thing you might expect - civic appreciations of formers mayors and leaders of corporations, and the like. ( This, for example. )

But there were also more unlikely subjects, such as the People's Steeplejack, Fred Dibnah. (  A Revered Son of Bolton  )

There was also what purported to be a War Memorial, but which I prefer to view as a before-and-after allegory of the danger posed by unlicensed chiropractors. ( A manoeuvre goes badly wrong. )

Then came a statue of a man whose only identification was the single word CHADWICK, carved boldly into his plinth. No doubt I should know who Chadwick was, and why he needs no further introduction, but I don't. ( Chadwick. )

Finally, I would so like to see a Romeo and Juliet story in which the son of Sizzles falls in love with the daughter of The Food Factory. ( Two houses, both alike in dignity. )

Bolton Wonders

Last night I had the chance to look around Bolton for the first time, and was very taken with the statuary in the main square. Some of it was the kind of thing you might expect - civic appreciations of formers mayors and leaders of corporations, and the like. ( This, for example. )

But there were also more unlikely subjects, such as the People's Steeplejack, Fred Dibnah. (  A Revered Son of Bolton  )

There was also what purported to be a War Memorial, but which I prefer to view as a before-and-after allegory of the danger posed by unlicensed chiropractors. ( A manoeuvre goes badly wrong. )

Then came a statue of a man whose only identification was the single word CHADWICK, carved boldly into his plinth. No doubt I should know who Chadwick was, and why he needs no further introduction, but I don't. ( Chadwick. )

Finally, I would so like to see a Romeo and Juliet story in which the son of Sizzles falls in love with the daughter of The Food Factory. ( Two houses, both alike in dignity. )