More 'Thoughts'
    Isn’t it surprising what sticks in your mind.    I have found that some of what I learned at school seems to have stayed with me ever since - and to be honest not all of it has been much use.  
    I have retained a catalogue of useless facts.
     Somethings I thought I knew and should have remembered seem to have vanished all together.   I watch quiz shows on the tele and shout ‘I know that ….. but then I can’t remember’   My retrieval system has failed again.    There are some useless facts I wish I could remember.
    One useless fact came along many years ago.   I was told that the motto of a training school I attended was ‘Knowledge dispels fear’.   
    I lived with this useless information for years until I arrived in Bolton.
 I  became involved in setting up what is now the Bolton Interfaith Council.
    Then that useless fact came into its own.    Knowledge dispels fear.  The more we learn about each others faiths and customs; then the more we understand how they all tick then the better we can all get on.
    We break down barriers that were never there in the first place!
    Suspicion and ignorance create fear and discrimination;
Knowledge dispels fear - now that is a useless fact that has turned out to be very useful and very true.    
    I can’t remember who told it to me but I am glad I remembered it.
I am tony mcneile, a Unitarian and Secretary of the Bolton Interfaith Council.


In my school days we had assembly every day with prayers and hymns, and I had to go to church on Sundays too.     I didn’t get any joy out of all this religion,  because I couldn’t sing.   As soon as I opened my mouth everyone turned round - and went sshh.   They didn’t want the grunter to sing - but I knew all the words and I knew all the Bible stories and I was familiar with all the prayers but because I could only grunt, I didn’t enjoy any of it.   When I was old enough I left  all that religion behind and never went near a church again - never to face the horror of wanting to sing but only producing grunts.
    That was part of growing up - being a teenager and being able to reject what I didn’t like in the world.     What would have happened if I hadn't had thatg to reject - something else would have to go - -it always does.
    Years later and much older, I turned back to all those words I had heard so many times in childhood, mulled them over and found value and a deeper meaning in them - though I still couldn’t sing.
    I was thankful that I had heard them, I could rake them over like the ashes of a dying fire and bring new life into them.
    In the end I was grateful that the religion of my culture had been part of my life. and I had been able eventually to find the wisdom it contained.

I am tony mcneile - a Unitarian.