Dr Michael Mosley and Great Job Wednesday

From Paul Kerensa, Writer and Stand-Up Comedian:

‘Brevity is the soul of wit’, said Oscar Wilde in just six words. He could have said ‘Brevity’s soul’s wit’ in three, but who’s counting?

One of my favourite brief wits is one-liner king Tim Vine. We were chatting recently, and I asked him if he knew his shortest joke. He reckoned four words: ‘Velcro – what a rip-off’. Or one word, when he brings out some garden shears and just says ‘Shears!’. Although if a picture paints a thousand words, then that visual prop makes that one-word one-liner actually a thousand and one words...

I also love short stories. I don’t know what a good length is – 500 words sounds about right (a deadline tomorrow sounds right too). Then there’s this odd off-shoot, of Very Short Stories: a complete story in just one tweetable sentence. For example...

…‘“Why don’t you trust me?” she typed, before sending to both of the guys.’ That’s it. End of story. A complete tale about human failing, told in one breath.

To whittle the Bible down to eleven words, I’d zoom in on one of its most famous verses: ‘For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son’. Or in four words, ‘God loved, gave Son’. In one word, ‘love’. Others suggest the Bible in four words is actually its first four: ‘In the beginning, God’. But for me, it’s all about love.

I’m no bishop or clergyman, I’m just a creative waffler, perhaps an idealist. But I think the various strands of church, while publically disagreeing, are still trying to tell a story of love. The differences arise when we flawed humans try and define what love is. A kind welcome to all, as one side of the church has it? Or on the other side, tough love? Meanwhile, many are just trying to walk down the aisle in the middle.

I don’t have answers – thankfully I don’t need to – but God bless those puzzling it out. Instead, I’ll keep pondering the questions, aspiring to the ideal of love, and loving all of our stories. Because after all, each story is a response to life’s questions – whether we give one-word answers, or 500.