A work in progress

A work in progress…

…has always been a favourite phrase of mine.  Many things in my life (even my life itself) continue to be a “work in progress” (take, for example, my “prayer garden” which still exists more in my mind than on the ground – perhaps reflecting my prayer life.)

When I told friends yesterday afternoon that Andrew and I were going to the theatre to see a play about Brexit, there were a few raised eyebrows.  In fact, as I said it aloud I wondered why I was going at all – it didn’t sound anything like a good night out!  How wrong I was.  The play, “My country – a work in progress” is a National Theatre production which was at the Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow for one week.  As it happened, for this particular, highly significant week in the whole Brexit process, and it turned out to be exactly the right thing to do on the very day THE letter was signed and delivered.

The script of the play was put together by the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, using the real words of real people, interviewed all over the British Isles.  Leading the cast was the character “Britney” (Britannia) who had summoned her colleagues to a meeting.  These colleagues bore the names Caledonia, Cymru, Northern Ireland, South West, North East and East Midlands and each brought voices from their areas.  It was far too clever and compelling for this little blog to do it justice, but if you have the chance, do go and see it.

It takes a poet laureate to make Brexit into a moving, funny, gripping drama – but I guess the work of making it into a just and manageable way of life is for all of us.

Thinking of ourselves, our nations, our families, our work, our leisure.. as a “work in progress” is a very theological thing to do, it strikes me.  “I am confident of this”, writes Paul in Philippians 1:6, “that he who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”  Still a way to go…                     Jill