When I went to Bible School, it was with the express idea of getting to know God better. I imagined sitting rapt in class whilst the lecturers explained exactly what God meant in every obscure book of the Bible; then afterwards groups of us students would sit in the library poring over multiple translations and commentaries as we divided the Word over strong black coffee...

As exciting as it is to live in the 21st century - with all the advances in science, arts and technology - doing so comes with its own unique conundrums. Ones that cannot be solved by a computer, robot, or machine. Or even in a test tube…

● noun

an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.

Yet

In this

One case

There is none.

Never has been.

Never will be.

We are

none of us

either

black or white.

Nor even

the colour

we each

profess

the other

to be.

Look past the

Tempting tinsel

Avoid the

Brightly coloured

Ripples of ribbon

Don Ray-Bans

To block out

Exquisitely pleated

Satin bows

Incandescent with rage. That's what I would normally have been on hearing Yoshiro Mori's stupid thoughts jump out of his mouth. Instead, I hardly blinked and skipped blithely on to the next news item. Scary in itself, because such a thing failing to upset me usually means I've lost interest in the topic altogether…