This morning I wanted to look something up in a book I bought for £1 in the SCM sale when I was a student almost 15 years ago.  I wasn't sure, but I thought it had an orange cover, so I looked at the orange books in the right part of the bookcase before scanning along the shelves without success.  So I looked it up on the web, found a photo of the cover, discovered it was blue, and now on sale at £15 or thereabouts.  With this new information I quickly located the book, found the chapter I was after and read some stuff that will be helpful for my sermon on Sunday.

Not sure that's quite what the web was meant for, but it's useful!

Yesterday someone dropped into conversation the observation that "it is hoped that we will all wear night caps for the Sunday School nativity..." a simple enough thing to say, surely no loading in that?  But it made my blood run cold... at the back of a cupboard I still have a couple of "sleep caps" that date back to my chemo time, and the very thought of choosing to wear such a garment unexpectedly made me shudder inwardly.  I mooted the possiblity of a santa hat, but this was, not unreasonably, deemed unsuitable.  So, today I ordered a 'fancy dress' night cap that looks more like a santa hat (in different colours) than anything I might wear to bed, and will join in happily enough come the day.

But it gave me pause for thought about the power of things we thought were long gone and forgotten about to brought to mind by totally innocuous remarks.

It wasn't a big thing, and I knew it was just some fleeting association that was almost devoid of power, but it was very unexpected, and it's that, I think, that has stayed with me... Who'd have thought the phrase "night cap" could  possibly contain any power?  I wonder what words, phrases, songs, prayers, stories etc I use that touch raw nerves for others?  And would I ever know?  And how would I find the right balance?