Panic

Listening to The Smiths this afternoon might not have been my wisest move. Hot on the heels from singing along to the words ‘Panic on the streets of London, panic on the streets of Birmingham’, two songs later I was on to ‘London’ and now I’m about to listen to ‘Shoplifters of the world unite’. It is perhaps the most inappropriate playlist I could have chosen given the events of the last couple of days and yet it was, I promise you, entirely unintentional.

I certainly don’t want to make light of any of the events we’ve witnessed in London, Birmingham and elsewhere, particularly last night when Sky News stopped being a repetitive flourish of 15 minute headlines and became the gripping movie you just can’t stop watching. Unfortunately, the truth that hits you is that this simply isn’t a movie and, in fact, the building burning down on live TV is not some exciting explosion from a Bruce Willis film but rather the building from which five generations of a family have sold furniture to the community. Everything gone in a few moments of mindless violence. It is, quite frankly, heart-breaking and I pray that somehow we have seen the end of this or, at the very least, the worst of it.

I’m sorry for the slight break between the previous blog and this one. I’ve been creating two websites that I am ready for you to have a look at now and so I hope that you will enjoy having a browse and will feel free to offer me your honest thoughts once you’ve taken a look. You’ll notice that the blog has been doubled up on the personal site and that there are some other materials to check out. There is still a lot to be added though and so do check back when you can to see more!

Here we go…

Firstly, my personal site to provide news of my writing and to showcase some of my work: http://samlentonwriter.webs.com

(This will, hopefully, have a better web address in the future but this will do for now!)

Secondly, I’ve created a website to host and distribute the writing I do for churches: www.contemporarychristiandrama.com

As I said, there’s a lot more to add but at least it gives you an idea at the moment of what I’m putting out there.

OK, now this is much better – I’m listening to a song about a boy having a thorn in his side. Should be safe there. Saying that, the next one (which has just begun as I type this) is ‘Money changes everything’…