The Spiral Staircase

I have had two nights of insomnia, brain racing, pulse racing, heart pounding, deafening tinnitus. I think the reason is the consultation meeting taking place today. You may know the sort of thing, where an organization invites its members to consider what the organization will look like in five or ten years time. I used to enjoy such occasions, and have facilitated many for community and voluntary organizations. Now, when someone says “Where will we be in 2015?”, my answer is “Walking the dog on a towpath somewhere, heading for the pub, I hope!”. The whole idea of taking part, the groups, the questions, fills me with dread. So I didn’t go.

I'm making rapid progress through "The Dog Listeneer". And I’ve begun to read Karen Armstrong’s memoir “The Spiral Staircase”. Written four or five years ago, it is the story of her life from the point at which she left the enclosed religious order she had joined at the age of seventeen. January 1969. As Karen Armstrong was leaving one religious institution, I was having the first conversations about joining a different one, the Church of England priesthood. I shall enjoy reading her account, and no doubt more discussion of the parallels.