Most individuals are surprisingly predictable.  Consider your own shopping basket, route to work, Netflix choice, or holiday destination.  The weather, stock market, cats, and Southampton FC’s form are unpredictable, but people, I would argue, are usually not.  Of course, the predictability of someone’s moral choices can work out for good or ill, but iron out the occasional mistake or erratic choice, and one finds, with the best people, that golden quality – reliability – and (consequently) the building of trust.  If someone is made of the right stuff, they will deliver.

Dr Sarah Essex, whom I introduced to the Common Room on Wednesday, has, in abundance, the ability, experience, and character that will make her an exceptional leader of Pilgrims’.   A good tree will bring forth good fruit (Matthew 7:17)!  Just as I was succeeded in London by the right person at the right time, and Pascal Evans has gone on to be wonderfully successful, so the same is happening here.

A thought
‘Why is there so much useless redstone when you’re looking for diamonds?’  I had not considered this question until late on Friday morning, when I heard it asked by a Year 8 boy.  I had similarly little to offer when a different Leaver, on Tuesday, commented on the ‘portals’ in ‘Sector 8’.  Well-informed parents, down-with-the-kids parents, and younger parents may know that the first refers to Minecraft and the second to Asphalt 8. 

I have seen several articles in the paper predicting, or hoping for, significant societal change as a legacy of the current crisis: there was such an essay in Thursday’s Times (page 22), in which Jenni Russell explained, in compelling detail, t

As you know, I am leaving at the end of this term to train for ministry in the Church of England.  All being well, I will need to buy a clerical collar in July 2021.  Next year, my training ‘pathway’, to use the lingo, will lead

When was the last time you had a stone in your shoe?  It does not exactly hurt, but makes it impossible to enjoy a stroll.  Rage, in private, can have a cleansing effect; but irritation gnaws and nags.  I still remember a good friend (still thus), at his desk behind me, sniffing through our A-level History paper.  Some are irritated by the wrong type of Christmas card; others by music or expressions or words or eating styles.  And then there are people: some television personalities have a reputation for being irritating.  I cannot stand people clicking their knuckles.  I have written before that coughing without covering one’s mouth should be illegal – at the moment, of course, it is also dangerous and unethical.

Donald Rumsfeld: “Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.”