Simply Terrific Love

In the midst of weary, gloomy stories about humankind’s follies, stupidities and blurred visions comes a bit of news that won’t change the climate, the economy or the sad fact of incompatibility. But it will put a smile on the faces of those who have fought for the release of women from their prisons of repression and from their forced reticence wherever that is applied. It will put energy into the hearts of people who want a joined-up world where women play an equal part with men and contribute their unique skills and philosophies. It will put a tear of success into the eye of any who value society as a solution, not a problem.

The Indian girls cricket team is just what we need right now. 

Its echoes will spread round the world. Its joy of freedom will inspire wherever it is seen. Its laugh of hope tells everyone ‘there is a future’. Its beauty will shine forever as one of humanity’s great moments. It is the unlocking of prejudice and bias and the gift of oneism to a world desperate for love.

That love can be expressed by a cricket bat, by the care of others, by speaking out when silence is expected in order to preserve the status quo. It is carried on the shoulders of those whose brave fight has for years been thwarted by conservation of what is not sustainable. It is manifest in the ranks of women playing their parts in deciding the strategy for survival. It will form a major part of the new universe we must design with intellect greater and faster than ours about to dominate us. Above all it will be our guide to the future, our calm in a storm and a searchlight on our journey to discovering who we are.

One kind man devoted himself to creating the team. He took no money for it. He did it for them, not for him. His vision, energy and grit were his raw materials. His team members were his canvas and his paint. His soul was his engine. What he produced exceeds the beauty of the Taj Mahal, the steadfastness of the long distance runner and the eternal call of the whale. He has turned on a light that will never go out.

We thank him with all our hearts.

We bless him with all the Jasmine Flowers in the world.

Amen.

P.S. Don’t write, please, but if you are of the same mind as me, give a flower to a lady. And sing her praises at the same time.

John Bittleston

07 October 2023