Streamofconciousness

So when the boy spoke to his father – you know I think it was quite an aggressive act, effectively wishing the old man was already dead, because that would be the only way anyone would normally get their hands on their inheritance so early, and I should have thought the father wondered when that might be and what form of death would steal upon him (is he the bowel cancer sort? or will a thief break in and there’d be a right struggle and some crockery smashes and father is beaten to the ground by a man with a wicked grin and wearing a long red coat with an ebony cane with a silver tip and the stick hits dad and he falls among the shards of earthenware although it could be porcelain except most of that is used for decorative art, such as on the outside of temples and ancient buildings of that kind, many of which were built in honour of false gods and idols, such as Zeus, Hermes and several others in togas which seemed to be quite complicated pieces of clothing, requiring a great deal of draping and crooked arms, and that might restrict movement, which is why they wore belts, so that could tuck their clothing in when they wanted to run or take part in sports like fencing or javelin-throwing or the wielding of cudgels or just sticks with which to hit fathers when attempting to steal from him?) or perhaps he would die from a poison or the lead piping in the conservatory, although glass is an expensive item, almost as costly as precious stones, which would be probably worth breaking in to try to steal any panes of glass especially; or just vandals, who want to let the cattle go free because perhaps they are animal rights protestors, who think the father is going to experiment on them or use restrictive farming practices, such as over-feeding the calf, which he is, so he probably deserves what’s coming to him, except it’s not really a capital offence, like treason or chariot racing in a no-racing zone, or practicing dentistry without a licence or being grossly neg-ligent or shooting vandals that invade your land, which after all as a farmer you have a perfect right to defend as long as you stick to the rules about due force and don’t get more violent than your attackers; I suppose you have to fight fire with fire, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, although fighting tooth and nail is probably too much and Jesus said we should not use that method anyway preferring to advise that we should carry the bag an extra mile and then lend the man your coat as well plus putting everything you have in the collection whether you have two mites or are a rich young ruler who says to this man ‘Go’ and he goes but either way you go away sad because you claim to have kept all of the commandments from when you were a youth which in those days would have meant a child,which is how you are supposed to be when you come to faith and not be forbidden but suffered which is what the Apostle Paul did with his ‘thorn in the flesh’ which was probably (or so the scholars say) not in his flesh at all but was to do with his eyesight (though some suggest this might have been a difficult wife) which must have been a serious drawback to travelling and being able to see quite apart from everything else although it didn’t seem to prevent him from having visions but then perhaps those are not actually perceived with the eyes so that’s not relevant and it would have been rather uncomfortable for him to have had a thorn (log?) in his eye but clearly he was no stranger to hurting, having made his entrance on to the New Testament stage at the stoning of Stephen and then re-emerging as a very nasty persecutor of Christians and then being knocked off his horse while on the road to Damascus which is quite close to the border with Lebanon which is where the Cedars come from and that reminds me of that hilarious Oscar Wilde farce Charley’s Aunt where loud Lady Bracknell says ‘A handbag?’ it was dear, dear Dame Edith Evans in that part, wasn’t it? Or do I mean Edith Sitwell? Now, I have forgotten what I was talking about…