So. After the gazillionth time I've said to a Catholic religious (that is, a nun or brother/priest in an order, not a 'religious Catholic'), 'What on G-d's green earth is going on in your formation?' I think it's time to write a thread. 1/ I think we currently fundamentally misunderstand what formation is. It is NOT fitting every person to a cookie cutter expectation of what the ideal priest or religious member of that order looks like. It isn't lopping off bits of them to fit. That's deadly to G-d's world. 2/

I have a confession to make. For the last 4 months. I have quietly hidden ex-students' posts from my FB feed. I'm not usually one for avoidance, but I knew that if I saw what many of them were posting, we probably couldn't come back from that.

And I want to still love them. I don't want to think, 'You are racist, sociopathic human beings who will forget your own ancestors' suffering the minute you have power to trample over others to get what you want, oppressing them, taking their land, cheering their starvation & murder.' 2/

It is the 43rd anniversary of the death of one of Bollywood's iconic singers - he died at 55 in 1980, right after we'd seen him in concert. There's a picture of me with him somewhere. Have a taste of #MohammedRafi

@JS_Diaspora @JavariaFarooqui @aliawhs

Aw man, this one. CLASSIC. #MohammedRafi

I've often thought how G-d created the universe tells us something about Him & how we should approach it & our lives. Key things here for me:

1. Always in process
2. Tends towards balance - *dynamic balance*, not static - e.g., our blood pH is maintained by a buffer system:
1/ It's always in motion, in the same way a pendulum must be in motion to keep time. And in both, there is something else: how MUCH movement? You can't have the pendulum bashing out the sides of the clock or the buffer rapidly cycling. Nor can you have barely any movement. 2/

H/T @Prof_RBW
“A sentimentalist is simply one who wants to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it. We think we can have our emotions for nothing. We cannot...As soon as you have to pay for an emotion you will know its quality, & be the better for such knowledge. 1/ We cannot...As soon as you have to pay for an emotion you will know its quality, and be the better for such knowledge. And remember that the sentimentalist is always a cynic at heart. Indeed, sentimentality is merely the bank holiday of cynicism.”
― Oscar Wilde, De Profundis

2/

What a wonderful thing to have this song of freedom written by James Weldon Johnson for Abraham Lincoln's birthday sung on his birthday. Here are the full lyrics:

Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

I prayed for the war dead.

I went to a Remembrance Day service.

I give thanks for those who have served in the forces.

I paused at the war memorial.

But I didn't seek out or wear a poppy this year. I've gone from seeing them as a communal, wordless symbol of remembrance to seeing them as a marker of rightwing fascists and cowards (e.g., the @BBC who won't tell us the truth about anything and gives every neo-Nazi a platform). Rightwing racist, xenophobic, misogynist terrorists have adopted them as a symbol of the worst kind of nationalism -

I have always been a vivid dreamer, and often wake up feeling like I've returned from another world. I have also woken up expecting to be mid-dream situation. But last night was another level.

I dreamt (?) I was awake in bed when I heard machine gun fire down the road. 1/ No, not cars backfiring. No, not firecrackers. I have slept in Lahore when tensions were high & I know that sound. It's unmistakable. Barrage, pause. Barrage, pause. I froze. Then, much nearer, I heard glass breaking. The pitch suggested bottles or unglazed glass. 2/

Goodbye, #MeatLoaf. My coming of age music is 80s; he wasn't on my radar until 'I Would Do Anything...', but my song was always 'Objects in the Rearview Mirror'. It took me decades to realise it was my parents' as well. #MeatLoafRIP

I sobbed the first 20 times I heard it; the catharsis was immense. Now I just cry quietly.

I know I still believe he'd never let me leave, I had to run away alone
So many threats and fears, so many wasted years
Before my life became my own

That hit. Hard.

All right, @churchofengland, #AnglicanTwitter, @oxforddiocese (St Paul's, Slough) - which, handily, happens to be mine - I need a word. Who, in the name of all that is holy, thought THIS was a good idea? FFS. Tweeps, what is wrong w/ this picture? Answers in comments. 🧵 1/ How is this wrong? Let me count the ways.

I'm sure, white CoE digital comms person who put this template together, you thought the spotlight on the eager black woman at the front was...what, diversity? Inclusive? What?

It IS *two* things: fake & tokenism.

2/

Something I learned early on as a Catholic: do NOT mess w/ a Jesuit, no matter how cuddly he seems. Papa Francis was formed in the fire of Argentina during dark times. He has done the right thing here, though I'm sorry that's the case. 1/
latimes.com/world-nation/s… I may be an Anglican churchwarden now, but my heart is still Catholic, so I am really feeling this. Also, I attended a conservative Catholic church for 19 years, & I saw what 'Summorum Pontificum' did, up close & personal. I could have told you it would do exactly what it did. 2/

In my USA home, Dilip's films were on all weekend, ostensibly b/c he was my mother's favourite. A comment of hers made me wonder: "The girls were all 'Dilip, Dilip' when a film came out." I thought, "Wait, 'the girls' - not you?" @ProfSunnySingh @PSYfem
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/… I came to love them, though I could never admit that of them all, it was 'Madhumati', the reincarnational love story, that I loved the most. That only made the odd appearance (once? twice?), while 'Naya Daur' was a regular guest.
2/

And today's hot take: a special f*** you to Maria Goretti's feast, but most especially to every priest who preaches 'she died protecting her chastity,' which means 'all of you who were raped/sexually abused aren't good enough, because you're not dead'. 1/ Go hang, you paedophiles & paedophile protectors. In the middle of every Goretti sermon, I want to scream, 'I was *5*, you motherf***ers!' And don't feed me the BS line about her forgiveness, a retrofit to deal w/ the blowback from later generations of women 2/