abtw777

We were left to find our own way to the park. And, to be honest, they didn’t seem too concerned about whether we turned up or not. As such, I wasn’t sure why I bothered to show up for sports. But I still went. It’s just that I didn’t join in with the sports. Instead, I lay down in the long grass. From there, I scrutinised the other kids, who chose to take part in the games on the mown grass. And even then, back in junior school, I got the sense that there was something a bit sinister going on – that this insistence on organised games on the part of our teachers had some peculiar motives. I was the only runaway, long-grass boy in my class. There were a few runaway girls. We spent our time together, getting our first inkling of rebellion. At senior school, this pattern continued. There was a group of runaway boys. We told jokes and had conversations at the edges of the playing fields. Now though the teachers were a bit more concerned by our non-participation. As a punishm...

Ours was a conservative church, that’s for sure. Serious men wearing back suits, black ties, black shoes, white shirts. The women likewise reserved in their dress and in their manner. But then there was a troubling development. Someone broke ranks. Someone, you might say, ‘got religion’. He came to be called ‘Jimmy the One’. Well, in theory at least, everyone was believing the same gospel – the Nicene Creed, the Westminster confession – all of that. But somehow it had come alive for Jimmy. He started speaking about being chosen by God, about being anointed by the Spirit – and hence, I suppose, the nickname. I was just a teenager at the time, and truth to tell, my vote was with Jimmy. At least he was something different. At least he was enthusiastic about his faith. But there were lessons there for me in the way Jimmy was treated. Jimmy the One, you see, may have thought that it was all about God, but his name sort of suggested that it was really all about Jimmy. He was, o...