The Sound of Laughter

Decided that with having such a long break from college this summer I really needed to get my teeth into some deep, meaningful, thought provoking reading this summer to keep the brain ticking over a bit. So I was really happy to be given this for my birthday - it gave me an excuse to put more serious stuff aside!!

As you'd expect from Kay it's a laugh a minute book full of funny stories of his childhood, youth and then early adulthood with the various jobs he did and the time he spent performing in plays ands performing in pubs and clubs etc. before making it big time. Well worth a read for any of his fans.

One section from it really struck me though, so I thought I'd share it here. It comes at the end of a section where he has been talking about his experiences of going to a Catholic school and the nuns that taught him, and also of being an altar boy at his local Catholic church:

I like to think that by serving on the altar I've more than done my bit towards securing my place in heaven. And what a vision of heaven it is too. Millions of people queuing in single file up an endless white marble staircase, there's plenty of mist and tireless angels fly to and fro on administration duties...

Hopefully, I shouldn't have to queue up for too long before I get to the pearly gates (like I say, being an altar boy is a bit like having one of those fast-track passes that Alton Towers do, remember wink, wink). And my idea of heaven is that I get to settle back in front of a large television and watch the best bits of my life all over again. All of my friends and family can sit with me too and hopefully we'll be able to settle any outstanding arguments about who said what and when. I can also stop the tape once in a while and go for a swim in a pool full of Vimto. I always wanted to do that, especially on a summer's day, so I could swim and drink at the same time. I might as well request it when I get to heaven because I wrote to Jim'll Fix It in 1982 and heard sod all back.

I know it might seem hypocritical of me to talk about a heaven after all the criticism I've thrown at Catholicism, but at the end of the day I can believe what I like, it's my life. I like to believe in a God of some kind, in some sort of higher being or force. Personally I find it very comforting plus it also gives me somebody to talk to on long train journeys when there's no phone signal.

And if I do get to my heaven and find that it doesn't exist then it'll be much too late to do anything about it and hopefully I will have lived a deluded but happy life...

Lots to think about there wouldn't you say? It really strikes me in all sorts of different ways and on many different levels. But the one thing that really stood out to me straight away was the level of faith that is there, and how there must be so many people with some kind of faith like Peter Kay. People who have in some way been impacted by a more 'institutionalised' Christianity through their upbringing, their school days or whatever brought them into some kind of contact with it. People who, whether rightly or wrongly - from actual personal experience or hearsay, have negative perceptions of Church and the Christian faith (see entry below). But still people who have a faith in God and a hope of heaven. As a committed Christian and church member I really do believe that the Church does have a lot to answer for, but I also passionately believe that it has a lot to offer and there are so many people out there with faith looking for answers that the Church needs to be giving relevantly and with care and love, sharing God's love and grace with a people who are searching.