Brian Cox and Avocados

From Leslie Griffiths, Methodist Minister:

I was as shocked as most people when I heard that David Bowie had died. I’m not going to pretend that I was a Bowie fan, I wasn’t; but my kids, who pulled their hair out at my ignorance, made sure I kept myself informed. His contribution to the national discussion of sexual orientation was immense. What irony then that his death was announced just as Anglican leaders were yet again about to get their knickers in a twist on just that question. But, of course, I was as struck as most commentators at the man’s ability to re-invent himself. He’d mastered the Sinatra formula. Over and over again, he just picked himself up, dusted himself down, and started all over again.

I’m intrigued by all the speculation flowing from his last album, released last week - especially the song called Lazarus. Was he indeed writing his own epitaph as some say? At first hearing, that just might be the case. “Look up here,” he sings, “I’m in heaven.” And to those who found him difficult to read, people who were always wanting to know the man behind his latest image, he simply shrugs his shoulders. He can now hide his scars, play out his lines, far from their prurient gaze. “You know I’ll be free,” he sings, “just like the bluebird,” before adding a flourish: “Now ain’t that just like me?”

Has he re-invented himself yet again? Who knows? That isn’t what the real Lazarus did. Jesus is said to have wept when he heard of his friend’s death. Only then did he call him back from death into life again. This miracle was a gift, a pure act of grace. We’ll all have to die one day and none of us will have the foresight to choose our own moment or write our own obituary. Bowie got pretty close. But how we’d all like to hear the words that come from a higher power; “Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.” As for David Bowie who has meant so much to so many, may he rest in peace, free at last, free indeed as the bluebird.