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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Rachel Mann

Good morning.

We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ and I suspect many of us believe it’s true. It has some academic credibility. Aristotle compared the mind to a wax tablet, saying that when we’re young the wax is hot and pliable; as we age it become cooler and less flexible. Modern science has taken up this idea with the suggestion that the young brain displays ‘neuroplasticity’.

At the same time, there’s evidence that older minds can remain incredibly flexible. I love the story of John Basinger who, aged 58, decided to learn the ten and half thousand lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost. He was nearly seventy by the time he achieved it.

Learning, I think, takes a lot more than brains. As John Basinger reminds us, it requires dedication, but, in my experience, learning also requires a willingness to listen to others. It’s never merely an intellectual matter. For example, one area where listening has been crucial for me is in my understanding of the rich variety of transgender people.
I don’t mind confessing that it wasn’t until I got to know some people who identify as ‘non-binary’ that I began to accept that there are people do not fit into one or other gender. This confession is all the more embarrassing because I’m a trans woman who transitioned thirty years ago. I should know better.

Jesus invites us to love our neighbours as ourselves. It was by building relationships with people in some ways the same as and in other ways different to myself that I learned to be a better neighbour.

God of friendship, teach us to love our neighbour as ourselves; break down the walls of fear and difference and show us the riches of your diverse world.

Amen