Dear Friends,
Where would we be without Midsomer Murders? Over 100 episodes and counting. Who would have thought that the population of a select few quintessentially English villages – modelled on those found in the Chiltern Hills apparently – could give rise to enough murder and mayhem to keep the programme going for so long. It is the sort of TV programme that everybody watches, but nobody will admit to it. Well, I can keep my secret no longer; I watch it, I enjoy watching it, I will never tire of watching it…even the repeats…
…Mind you, Midsomer Murders is just getting started when compared with The Archers; Ambridge has been part of the fabric of British society for so long, it has to be real, doesn’t it? No, it doesn’t. Its appeal is that it isn’t real and everybody knows it isn’t real. That’s why we are addicted to programmes like this: Coronation Street, Albert Square, Emmerdale – each with their own public House at its heart, (The Rovers’ Return, The Queen Vic., The Woolpack), – the last thing we want is to discover that they really do exist…
…All of us needs somewhere to escape to; some form of escapism that will take us out of ourselves if only for a short while, and allow us to leave behind the reality of the life we live, whatever that life might have in store for us…And of course, it doesn’t have to be a television series that does this – a good book, inspiring music, art of every kind, even a jigsaw puzzle – all of these have the ability to draw us into themselves until, just for a while, we find ourselves leaving this world behind and entering into the world of make believe…All of us has a wardrobe of the mind that is the gateway to our own particular Narnia…
…And so, we thank God for the gift of imagination that is used for this purpose: for authors, script writers, artists, composers, entertainers, story tellers, actors, musicians, craftsmen and craftswomen…
…In a strange way (or perhaps not so strange) believing in God brings with it an invitation to step outside of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves, to delve deep within ourselves, to see ourselves as God sees us. We are invited to enter a wholly different dimension; to leave behind the all too limited perspective that we call the ‘here and now’ and to embrace eternity. We are presented with the opportunity to set aside a purely mechanistic, materialistic, monochrome existence in order to be embraced by a spirituality that is awash with colour…
…Just as with any soap opera, we can’t stay there forever. We have to re enter the so-called ‘real’ world. We have to leave behind such places. But when we have experienced this Divinely inspired spiritual reality; rather than leave it behind, we find it – God – becomes more real to us than anything else…Don’t take my word for it, try it for yourselves…