Mmm! Banana Ice Cream

From comedian & writer Paul Kerensa:

The second I’ve stopped pausing for thought today, I’m running a few streets over to University College Hospital for my annual check-up. I need one more than most – born inside-out. Before the age of 5 I'd had a dozen surgeries under my belt – literally just under it. I’m here against the odds, after a couple of near-misses on the operating table, not least the very moment of my unusual birth. To this day, I feel for my parents, who had no idea I'd pop out with some inside bits popped out.

So I embrace my annual service: my medical MOT. I need it to function. It picks up problems before I get them. If it gets me on the right track, the doctors can kick my tyres, test my brakes, whatever they need to do.

We’re a week into Lent, when many of the faithful have a sort of spiritual annual check-up. Checking the tyres of our lives, making sure our moral engine’s going to carry us through. Lent’s meant to be preparation, hunkering down to get ourselves right, checking our bearings before the road gets rocky. And preparation is key. Abe Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Admittedly, he wasn’t known for his lumberjack skills.

But I’m sure these mini-MOTs are vital for us, identifying problems ahead before they become problems: whether spiritual, moral, occupational, even marital. Last year m’wife and I joined a great marriage course at our church, not because we had problems, but because we didn’t, and wanted to stay that way.

So hurray for our personal MOTs: spiritual, marital or medical. When I was a newborn, my parents had no luxury of foreknowledge, to prepare for the traumatic state I was in. So as I head to my annual check-up on this, my mum’s birthday, it seems a good time to say thanks Mum, for your patience and concerned care when you couldn’t prepare... oh, and happy birthday.