06/11/2024
Archbishop Stephen today gave the Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2's breakfast show with Zoe Ball. This follows in full.
I’m going to try and get through this without mentioning the American elections. It might not be possible. But let me start with a truly great American. Bob Dylan. I went to see him in concert in Liverpool on Sunday night. It was fantastic!
I first saw him in the late 70s or early 80s, having queued all night at Earls Court to buy a ticket. Harry Potter, eat your heart out!
Getting tickets this time was a bit easier. The Internet does have some advantages.
Back in the 60s Dylan was often referred to as the ‘voice of a generation.’ Sixty years on, he is the voice of many generations.
His set concluded with the song, Every Grain of Sand. Inspired by some beautiful and challenging words of William Blake, the song speaks about the interconnectedness of things and how we can see the whole universe in one thing, and how God cares for even the tiniest things. And drawing on words of Jesus, words that bring comfort in times of grief and isolation as well as times of joy, Dylan sings of every hair counted, every sparrow falling seen, and every grain of sand numbered, and how there is beauty and value in everything.
I also had some time off last week. I spent much of it walking parts of the pilgrim routes in the north east - along the coast towards Durham, and then bits of the Cleveland Way towards Whitby. And as I walked along the coastline, I didn't try to count the grains of sand, but, as many of us do, I did find myself picking up beautiful stones and pebbles that caught my eye. Soon, my pockets were bulging. And my rucksack.
But here's the thing, and what, I suppose, the song is about, and reaching out to each of us in our beautiful individuality and our vital solidarity: we are known. We don’t need to be more special, better, or more loved than the next person. So, the more I looked, the more I realised that all the stones on the beach are beautiful.
And now I do have to say something about the American election which appears to show a country so divided, divisions that we know too: let us see ourselves in each other.