Baz Luhrmann, Professor Brian Cox, Paula Radcliffe, Steve Cram and Sting & Shaggy

From comedian & writer Paul Kerensa:

This week I’m a godfather, and a best man… The christening was Sunday; the stag do’s tomorrow. They’re for two different people, I should add – who I’m trying not to confuse. Roast the stag, toast the toddler – easy.

Browsing online for pithy advice, for stag or…fawn, a certain advice-filled song appeared, by someone here. It’s not ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ but it could be. ‘Things Can Only Get Better’? ‘It Wasn’t Me’? All true, but this was Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Everybody’s Free To Wear Sunscreen’. I’d gladly hand this entire Pause For Thought to those words: motivational gold, appropriate for all, goddaughter or groom. “Wear sunscreen…” “Do one thing every day that scares you…” “Maybe you’ll marry…” (or we’ll add, Chris: maybe you’ll have twins…)

My favourite? “Don’t worry about the future – or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.” (Brian Cox can probably do that.) Those words aren’t far from Jesus’ advice in his mount-based sermon: “By worrying, can you add a single hour to your life? Let tomorrow worry about itself.” His advice flowed: “Don’t judge, or you’ll be judged”, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no”… then down the mountain, they sought shade, due to no sunscreen.

I know a preacher visiting a church, who was jokingly introduced: “Ladies and Gentlemen, our guest will now give the greatest sermon ever”. So he just read the Sermon on the Mount, sat down, then went home. Whatever our beliefs, solid wisdom can be for all.

Because other beliefs are of course available. On this show last Friday, I recalled a planetarium visit, pondering whether the question mark there in Ursa Major, or the full-stop of the North Star, is the more appropriate galactic punctuation…

…I should have waited for Brian – I was a week early. But as the Sunscreen song reminds, “Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind… The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.”

Whatever we believe is at the finish-line, life is a one-person race – with help along the way, if wanted.

This weekend, whether we’re running marathons, or running the gauntlet of a stag do on Guildford high street, I’ll pool our advice: Don’t worry, don’t judge, stretch, floss, let your soul be your pilot, things can only get better, you are Mr Boombastic… and since the weather’s nice, wear sunscreen.