Vows

This is very wrong: they're just messing with us. I read a book recently in which someone seduced a Roman Catholic priest, one of Michele Roberts' more fun novels, and it shocked me rather a lot, like the first time I saw a nun kiss the crucifix at Easter. I yearn to keep the body out of some things, and if I knew more theology I would know what heresy that implicates me in. Possibly Manicheanism? I'm not sure.

My grandpa, whom I miss, signed the pledge as a young man, back when this was a big social movement. He grew up in Plymouth, and worked in the docks. Later in his life he changed his mind about the things that had led him to give up alcohol, and thought that moderate drinking was fine and no problem. But he never went back on his vow because he had promised. It still makes a big impression on me that he kept to it. I don't think I would have; at least, I can't swear that I would have.

He used to remind me of the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. After he died I thought it was a pity that description made him sound so dull, because he wasn't at all.