Monday 20th April
Welcome back and I hope everyone had a lovely holiday, well-deserved time with family and friends, and perhaps the chance to take opportunities that aren’t possible during term time.
If I were to mention:
…I suspect a few of you might recognise these as songs sung, with varying degrees of musicality – at football matches – specifically by the supporters of Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Bayern Munich.
In London there is a beautiful church on Fleet Street. For hundreds of years, Fleet Street was the home of the national newspapers, and a church has stood on the site since the sixth century. It has been rebuilt seven times – most recently after the Great Fire of London and again following bomb damage during the Blitz in 1940. If you’re ever in London, St Bride’s Church on Fleet Street is well worth a visit.
If you happened to be there at the beginning of June each year, you might come across The Richard Johnson Bubble Service. This is an annual service held at St Bride’s, that takes place following a bequest by Richard Johnson, who died in 1795. In his will, he required that a sermon be preached every year on the theme vita humana bulla est - which, of course, is Latin for, human life is a bubble.
In keeping with the theme, the service includes a bubble-themed sermon – and also a choir sings the anthem written in 1918, I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles…which is also sung by the supporters of a certain East London football club… one that, at the moment, is struggling to remain in the Premier League for another season.
Football aside, we might wonder what possessed Richard Johnson to come up with the idea that human life is a bubble, and to stipulate that, forevermore, churchgoers would listen to a preacher exploring that theme. He lived some 250 years ago; he was a paper merchant, led a rather lonely life, died at the age of 38, and apparently always felt that he had failed to achieve the success he had aspired to.
I wonder how many of us have ever found ourselves daydreaming into a glass of carbonated water—certainly not an energy drink—and watching the bubbles rise towards the surface. Or perhaps, if you have much younger siblings, you have amused them by blowing bubbles from a pot of soapy mixture. For a moment, each bubble drifts upwards, changing shape as it goes. Very briefly, it may be full of colour, as white light interferes across its surface,; a faint draft may even send it off in a new direction. And then, all too quickly, it pops and is gone. Despite its colour and movement, every bubble is fragile and temporary. Perhaps that is what Richard Johnson had in mind when he reflected, Vita humana bulla est — life is a bubble.
The summer term which begins today is all too short, and because of that, it is particularly busy. For some of us, examinations will shape the next nine weeks; for others, the focus will be on finishing well before moving on to new and exciting destinations. Yet, as ever, there are many opportunities right here and now: new experiences to embrace, challenges to overcome, and new people to connect with. Time will pass quickly, and that makes it all the more important that we take opportunities while we can—learning from others, treating them and ourselves well, and developing our talents to the full. Before we know it, the bubble will have burst, Commemoration will be behind us, and another term—and another year—will be over.
We are far more likely to regret the chances we did not take than those we did. Growth rarely comes from standing still; it comes from saying yes to opportunities and meeting challenge head鈥憃n. My hope for everyone is that we continue to grow this term — not necessarily physically, but as people — by grasping the opportunities that come our way and squeezing the very most from the time we have.