{"id":1568,"date":"2021-07-29T15:06:03","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T14:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/?page_id=1568"},"modified":"2022-01-09T09:30:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T09:30:51","slug":"selfish-at-seventy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/august-2021\/selfish-at-seventy\/","title":{"rendered":"Selfish at Seventy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keith Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo by Amanda Kinbrum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Can it ever be acceptable to be self-centred?<\/p>\n

On my mother\u2019s twentieth birthday in 1940 she was given a little book, Daily Light on the Daily Path. As you may know, this contains daily readings made up of biblical extracts selected by Samuel Bagster and his family in the 1870s. Remarkably, it\u2019s still in print. Some years ago, I rediscovered my mother\u2019s copy and I\u2019ve read it daily ever since.<\/p>\n

What does this have to do with being self-centred? Simply that I\u2019ve started to realise that a strong and persistent theme of the readings is that I should give up worldly pleasure and indulgence so that I can store up treasures for the life that is to come. I struggle with this on several levels.<\/p>\n

The first is that I\u2019m agnostic about \u2018the life that is to come\u2019, so this particular offer of jam tomorrow has limited appeal. More important is that I have a strong belief in a loving God (please feel free to use alternative terminology if you wish) and I can\u2019t bring myself to understand why a loving God would want us to eschew pleasure, and indeed indulgence, in the wonderful life that\u2019s been given to us.<\/p>\n

All of this came into sharp focus two years ago when, at the age of 70, I was offered the opportunity to study for a PhD at the University of Birmingham. The opportunity came as a complete surprise \u2013 I considered myself far too old and far too underqualified to be accepted but, thanks in no small part to the incredible support I received from several Friends, I was.<\/p>\n

I was delighted, but my delight was alloyed with concern. For me, studying for a PhD is pure indulgence. It\u2019s not a step on my career path and it\u2019s hard to see how I\u2019ll be able to put my new qualification \u2013 should I get it \u2013 to practical use. Also, it\u2019s no trivial undertaking. It impacts my life and the lives of those around me, particularly Kath, my wife.<\/p>\n

Studying costs money that could be spent, for example, on home improvements and holidays. It also absorbs time \u2013 a lot of time \u2013 that I might otherwise have devoted to promoting and supporting Quaker activities. Instead, I\u2019ve chosen to devote much of my (almost!) retirement and a substantial chunk of my pension on doing things I enjoy \u2013 reading, research and writing.<\/p>\n

Does this make me selfish at seventy? Undoubtedly! Will it stain my immortal soul, assuming I have one? I\u2019m less sure. I\u2019m inclined to the view that life is for enjoying, provided that the enjoyment doesn\u2019t harm others or our planet. After all, Advices and Queries tells us that we should live adventurously, which is exactly what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n

So I find myself somewhat at odds with Samuel Bagster and his family. Their biblical selections are inspiring and thought provoking, but maybe they direct us a little too strongly away from living life to the full. What do you think, friends? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Forty-Three<\/em> Newsletter \u2022 Number 508 \u2022 August 2021
\n<\/strong>Oxford Friends Meeting
\n43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW<\/p>\n

newsletter@oxfordquakers.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keith Wilson Can it ever be acceptable to be self-centred? On my mother\u2019s twentieth birthday in 1940 she was given a little book, Daily Light on the Daily Path. As you may know, this contains daily readings made up of biblical extracts selected by Samuel Bagster and his family in the 1870s. Remarkably, it\u2019s still … Continue reading Selfish at Seventy<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"parent":1556,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1568","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1568"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1662,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1568\/revisions\/1662"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}