I noticed on social media the other day a campaign to keep Clyde, the Glasgow 2014 mascot whose farewell was documented in this video...

The desire to capture the moment by campaigning for Clyde to be kept 'alive' and 'here' seemed to me to echo Peter's desire to erect three Tabernacles on the mountain of Transfiguration... This was a wonderful few days for the whole city, maybe the nation, the UK, the Commonwealth, and Clyde embodied and expressed something precious: who wouldn't want to 'bottle' it for the future.  But you can't, that's the point.  We have to come back down the mountain of Glasgow 2014 and back to real life.

When Mary met Jesus in the garden of Resurrection he sternly told her 'do not cleave/cling/hold on to me' ... Now I'm not equating Clyde to Jesus (just in case you think I've totally lost the plot and become even more heretical) but there's a truth here.  We can't cling on to Glasgow 2014, to Clyde and all he symbolised, we have to move forward into a world without him smiling at us, dancing in sporting venues, hugging small children etc.  We have to come down the mountain, back to the plain, transformed, if not transfigured, in some small measure by what we have seen and heard.

Farewell, Clyde, you have taught us well. <waves>