{"id":5702,"date":"2014-10-22T07:11:16","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T07:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=5702"},"modified":"2015-02-16T10:23:31","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T10:23:31","slug":"code-ode-office-clear-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/code-ode-office-clear-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Code Ode:\u00a0Office Clear Out"},"content":{"rendered":"
Then God said \u201cLet us make human beings in our own image, to be like us\u2026<\/em>\u201d
\nGenesis ch 1v26.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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 <\/p>\n

We are people and people are completely different from<\/div>\n
everything only because God is a person.<\/div>\n
This is so deep you could fall in and drown.<\/div>\n
At the heart of everything<\/div>\n
Beneath everything<\/div>\n
Behind everything<\/div>\n
Fundamental to everything<\/div>\n
Before anything<\/div>\n
There was and is a PERSON.<\/div>\n
This PERSON gave rise to PEOPLE (oh, and THINGS).<\/div>\n
It\u2019s not as The World thinks, the other way round. It\u2019s<\/div>\n
not \u201cIn the beginning was A THING and eventually things stumbled into being<\/div>\n
really, really complicated things which got labelled \u201cpeople\u201d.<\/div>\n
(And I\u2019m not arguing with genetics or a long development<\/div>\n
process). I\u2019m saying a PERSON is more fundamental than a thing. Before any<\/div>\n
elements – A PERSON.<\/div>\n
If you don\u2019t get this, you can still think and hope and<\/div>\n
believe that life has meaning and that you matter. But you can\u2019t justify it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Fine – until, if your THING, thing is true and somebody in<\/div>\n
power decides you don\u2019t matter squat and ruins your life \u2013 well tough. Get over<\/div>\n
it. Get over \u2018justice\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0Get over human<\/div>\n
rights. It\u2019s just a weak THING trying to win against a strong THING.<\/div>\n
That\u2019s it.<\/div>\n
You matter because the PERSON responsible for the Universe<\/div>\n
invented somebody(ies) like Him to matter. It affects every thought. I even<\/div>\n
thought about it when I cleared out my office after 35 years:–<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Recite this out loud.<\/b><\/div>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll supply you with bin liners\u2014black<\/div>\n
Except for confidential stuff, a sack<\/div>\n
That\u2019s white so it stands out to go for shredding.\u201d<\/div>\n
Light is doomed and dark is saved? We\u2019re heading<\/div>\n
Where our norms could all be torn apart.<\/div>\n
But, sack that I thought, to sack I\u2019d better start.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Paper phantoms, long and best forgotten,<\/div>\n
Briefly gasped in memory\u2019s air\u2014at bottom<\/div>\n
Of a sack reburied deep and quickly;<\/div>\n
Some achievements, solid, firm and thickly<\/div>\n
Bound in satisfaction, warm and wistful,<\/div>\n
Together with red herrings by the fistful,<\/div>\n
Herculean labours, plots and schemes<\/div>\n
Recorded side by side with idle dreams,<\/div>\n
Business cases on which hung careers,<\/div>\n
But that day, the sum of all my fears<\/div>\n
Was, would I be tried by paper cuts<\/div>\n
In addition to my allergy to dusts?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A table top appeared naked, raw<\/div>\n
From under layers, forgotten more than stored,<\/div>\n
Of documentary strata, decades deep,<\/div>\n
The deposit from the thought,\u201dEr\u2014better keep\u201d.<\/div>\n
What sedimentary rock could then be born<\/div>\n
If armies clerical, bored and forlorn,<\/div>\n
Laid down committee minutes endlessly?<\/div>\n
Work of administrative centuries,<\/div>\n
Sustained by coffee lakes and tea in seas<\/div>\n
Until at last scraped off by glacial me.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cHere we have a specimen of Beaurocracite,<\/div>\n
Pure grey except for flashes there which might.<\/div>\n
You think be gems, but no\u2014Pompossistone.<\/div>\n
Gems are there,<\/div>\n
but rare<\/div>\n
From the Protocolaceous zone.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A discarded plastic bag, decades decayed,<\/div>\n
Disintegrated at first touch and made<\/div>\n
A plastic snowflake mini-storm\u2014<\/div>\n
Decades\u2019 dandruff.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A life\u2019s career worked for good or ill,<\/div>\n
The final purpose, apparently, to fill<\/div>\n
(Although to breaking) those few liners, black.<\/div>\n
It seemed a poor product looking back.<\/div>\n
Even they would be redundant all too soon.<\/div>\n
The next career\u2019s clearance from that room<\/div>\n
Would happen in a twinkling, in a trice<\/div>\n
From a microscopic memory device,<\/div>\n
Its pattern of electrons clicked away.<\/div>\n
\u201cBut you\u2019ve had a lasting influence\u201d, they say,<\/div>\n
\u201cOn people\u2019s actions, attitudes and aims\u201d.<\/div>\n
What if that\u2019s just electrons , all the same?<\/div>\n
Busy being them inside their skulls<\/div>\n
Or stored inside some server near to Hull.<\/div>\n
I\u2019m thinking (it\u2019s the ground of every thought)<\/div>\n
We\u2019re people, in His Image, or we\u2019re nought.<\/div>\n
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