Letter from America

All photos courtesy of Unsplash 

I remember listening as a teenager to my old transistor radio and being entranced by Alistair Cooke’s  “Letter from America “. It was a weekly 15-minute radio series broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and its predecessor, the Home Service and also to the whole world through the BBC World Service.  

Throughout its history, it was presented by Alistair Cooke, who would speak on a topical issue in the USA, tying together different strands of observation and anecdote and often ending on a poignant note. The series ran from 24 March 1946 to 20 February 2004, making it the longest-running speech radio programme hosted by one individual in history.

It got me thinking about the possible contents of a “Letter from Heaven”. Of course, we already have one written in the 66 books of the Bible, making it the longest-running letter put together by God from the beginning of time. It too, ties together different strands of observation and anecdote and often ends on a poignant note!    But what would an abridged letter contain?

Communication

All photos courtesy of Unsplash 

Looking back, I can see it’s several weeks, two months in fact, since I wrote any news bulletins or blogs from here, so on this mid-summer’s day while the sun is behind some clouds, I thought it was a good opportunity to write again. But what can I write about this time? 

You’ll see that I’ve dropped the “Coronavirus” name from the title of my bulletin now – more in hope than in realism because it’s only too obvious that the pandemic is not over yet. It’s good to see how vaccines are making a difference, and most of us have now had our two doses, but infections are still a real danger to society as this horrible virus itself fights for its survival. In the UK we might yet see a third wave coming our way as we watch crowds mixing in several places without any attention to “social distancing”.