So It Goes...

Poor E. There she is deep into revision for what these days passes - or fails - as 'O' Levels, when her doting father lands her with another 'must-read' book.

'Must-read' books are exactly that, books that a growing child must read in order to be properly equipped to face the world. These naturally would be books I over time have read myself, striping them down as significant sources of moral wisdom rather than intellectual fodder.

Presumptuous no doubt that my choices of what are 'good' - in the moral sense - books should be somewhere between offered to and imposed on E; but it is parent thing - a parent legacy thing - and I doubt much harm will come of it.

Not that the poor thing is force fed these books. One does not stand over her watching her have a go at something too soon for her growing senses. They are merely mentioned in passing, pointed out on shelves, or occasionally purchased for birthdays as a true gift.

When - perhaps if, though one hopes not - the time is right she will read them for at least the interest of knowing her Pa more, what formed and forms his moral - if it is that - code.

Funnily enough - well it seems sufficiently peculiar to a Rector to reflect this point - one is simply not talking formal religious texts in general or Xtian ones in particular. These too will come, one trusts, in due mature time.

What rather one has are secular - though still intensely sacred - flashes of the human spirit, in both fact and fiction. You ask for examples naturally. I give you such things as 'To Kill A Mockingbird' or 'If This Is A Man' - goodness facing and facing down evil essentially. Some are horribly difficult to face - 'An Evil Cradling' - and some are intensely moving to both tears and laughter - 'An Evil Cradling' again.

Another is to be added to that list today, nudged by the news of the death of its author Kurt Vonnegut. 'Slaughterhouse 5' to myself and to many of our generation was a first introduction to the global horror of world war. We of our time had largely - and rightly - been brought up with a simple binary code: Allies of good; Axis of evil. (Funny how terms come round.) But there was more, there always is.

If I knew - and I doubt I did - of the Dresden firestorm it would have been as a meteorological fact rather than as a matter of deep moral concern. From Kurt one learnt of that concern and of so many other ambiguities that challenge established lines of thought.

So there you have it E. 'Slaughterhouse 5' is now added to 'The List'. One should - and one does - say rest in peace Kurt. Though also one adds his very own line on these and many things - 'So it goes'.

Happy final note - E is currently re-reading 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. Would be nice to think she had been inspired by her Pa on this. It is, however, a 'must-read' simply because it is a GCSE set book for the year!

So it goes.