A Well-balanced Equinox

Well, the Equinoctial Festival of Balance went off as well as ever. 

Which is as much as to say that for the fourteenth year running, Hnaef fell off his tightrope and landed in the duck pond. Splashing the various worshippers who were gathered around Duckhenge to wait for the crucial moment of Equinox.

Yesterday, that was mid-afternoon. So the sun was way above Duckhenge, making the whole exercise completely pointless.

And then we hear about the complaints about an open-air Islamic service to celebrate Eid. I'm going to link to this Daily Mail article.  Not because I advocate reading the Daily Mail. But because it's the first time Dan Hannan has ever written something that I believe is correct:

"Daniel Hannan tweeted: 'Obviously Nick Timothy should not be sanctioned for expressing a legitimate view.

'Equally, people should not be prevented from praying in public, whether they be anti-abortion protesters or Muslims marking sunset prayers."

Right. I'm glad that I 've got the shock of that over. Though I'd like to ensure abortion protesters aren't using their prayers as a form of harassment towards women going through a very hard and sensitive time.

You can't really complain that Islam thinks it's the only true religion. Because so does evangelical Christianity. So do Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. Arguably, so does Liberal Anglicanism, though they're probably nicer about it. The whole point of the "blind people trying to identify an elephant" story is that the narrator knows what the whole of the elephant looks like. And that's a common story to Buddhists, Hindus, and liberal Christians.

And if you're complaining about religious ceremonies in public view, what about Stonehenge at Solstice? Carol singers round a village tree? Arguably, Remembrance Day services. Where would you stop? Tommy Robinson's carol service with all those people singing about a middle-eastern baby, born in a foreign land, who had to flee from an oppressive regime and become a refugee in another country?

In a well-balanced world, we'd all live and let live, and let people get on with their celebrations as long as they're not threatening others or preaching hate. 

You may say I'm a dreamer.

But that would make me very angry. Because it's a quote from "Imagine". And that's about the worst song ever made.