shotleyfieldsforever

I always thought that, as with Rome, all roads lead to London. But I guess like so many of Mr Cummings' radical departures we might say, all roads lead to Barnard Castle? Apparently Mr Cummings enjoys 'game theory'. According to Wikipedia: Game theory  is the study of  mathematical models  of strategic interaction among rational decision-makers. [1]  It has applications in all fields of  social science , as well as in  logic ,  systems science  and  computer science . Originally, it addressed  zero-sum games , in which each participant's gains or losses are exactly balanced by those of the other participants. Today, game theory applies to a wide range of behavioral relations, and is now an  umbrella term  for the  science  of logical decision making in humans, animals, and computers. I guess if you undertake a hermeneutic on this quotation the first word that catches your eye is 'rational' in relation to de...

When I left Newcastle in 1987 I moved to Birmingham. As I thought at the time from a City of bridges to a City of underpasses. Whenever I drove back to Birmingham I had to drive through the Queensway tunnel from North to South. In those days I drove an Alfa Giulietta and I always opened the window to hear the music of the exhaust echoing on 'the subway walls'. Later, following a change of job I had to move into a new office, I had a basement parking space and so on my first morning I parked and went to the basement lift, my office was on the top floor, as the lift doors opened I stood back in amazement and shock to see my father staring back at me. The lift had floor to ceiling mirrors on three sides and of course what I was seeing was my own reflection. This image of seeing your father in your own reflection is exactly what Jesus is telling his disciples in todays Gospel. '4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do...

In these dark times we live in fear of death. It is around us and it is unanswerable. Last week an old friend of mine lost her husband, her daughter lives some way away and the funeral service was live streamed from the Crematorium. It feels impersonal, deeply sad, and brings with it little in the way of consolation. Her husband died in a nursing home and so she was unable to be with him at the end, the Nursing Home staff were kindness itself but she tells me that grief washes over her 'like a tidal wave of emotion'. There is little to be gained, it seems, from Jesus words in today's Gospel, 'Do not let your hearts be troubled'. Jesus is speaking to His disciples as He faces his own death but today in the midst of this viral pandemic, we are all facing death or the death of a loved one or simply the massive numbers of deaths reported daily and fast approaching 35,000. We have all had to discover within ourselves the inner resources to enabl...

I was a war baby. I was born in 1945 in Ashton under Lyne in a private nursing home / cottage hospital before the launch of the NHS. I was born in April and my Mother was discharged and I was brought home on VE Day. My father who was in the RAF was discharged a couple of years later, he was an instrument fitter, and his engineering skills continued to be needed by the air force. On his return to his day job, which in fact was a reserved occupation as an engineer with AVRO in Manchester, the reaction he received was such that he left the job after a week and through a couple of lucky accidents and family connections, he became a Bus Driver. My father had some deep reservations about many things and he was happy to spend his days isolated in his cab, very much his own boss, keeping to his timetable and spending time with his own thoughts. Once discharged he rarely referred to his time in the RAF but form time to time and as I grew older I concluded that in a phrase of the ti...