Ricky Ross launches Radio 2's Country pop-up service

From writer Abdul-Rehman Malik:

In our house – to quote Paul Simon – these are the days of miracle and wonder. “This is epic!” I hear my son exclaim this several times a day. It’s his response to every new, fantastic fact he learns. A sperm whale can hold its breath for 90 minutes… epic! The longest bridge in the world is 102 miles long… epic!

I try to join in his sense of excitement, but inside I sigh. Why can’t I be as animated and thrilled as my son?

Perhaps it’s because I’ve come to expect that on any given day my phone and feeds will buzz and ping about some revolutionary gadget or groundbreaking scientific discovery or new medical treatment that’ll save the lives of thousands.

But, maybe, there’s another reason. Perhaps it’s because I know that none of these amazing discoveries can hide how broken and dark the world sometimes feels.

If we can imagine new ways of living better, why can’t we seem to find better ways of living together.

But sometimes catastrophe too spurs our aspiration to do incredible things. Fifty years ago this week in 1967, the astronauts of Apollo 1 perished during a training mission. Theirs was to have been the first manned lunar landing. Without the lessons learned from the accident, most experts agree that humanity might never have made it to the moon.

One who did was astronaut Jim Lovell who said “We learned a lot about the Moon,” “but what we really learned was about the Earth...how fortunate we are to have this body and to be able to enjoy loving here amongst the beauty of the Earth itself.”

“We have come into this exquisite world,” said the mystic Hafiz (and who certainly never went to the moon), “to experience ever and ever more deeply our divinely given courage, freedom and light!”

Things might be bad and the news might get me down, but I can’t deny the exquisite gifts I’ve been given. I reckon we could all try responding to bad news by affirming the good – and to do whatever we can to bring hope and love into this beautiful world. To quote my son, it’s the gift of life that truly epic.