FRIDAY FLASH FICTION..

Bound to this post, flames dancing at my feet;

igniting my robe.

Smoke twirling into my nose, smothering inside my lungs.

Stinging my eyes, alas the tears I cannot hide.

Noise from the crackling twigs and spitting sparks,

drown the crowds chants.

Surging pain, the heat blistering my skin:

You cannot burn my soul within......

Poor Joan, what a horrendous way to go.

Needed some inspiration this Friday, thought about the 55 on Catherine of Arragon that I did last week, and all the famous women that have left their mark. It did the trick and sparked (no pun intended) my imagination.
Few historical characters, and no women, are more famous than Joan of Arc. Her name and story are known throughout the world. In the Middle Ages there were women who led armies, female mystics who prophesied and gave advice, and men and women alike whose beliefs led them to the stake. Joan's story has a unique quality, a fairy tale with a tragic ending, invested with her own personality - her common sense, her superior intelligence, her trenchant speech, her indomitable courage, before the judges at Rouen as in the moat at Orleans.

Certainly Joan was no heretic, she was no reformer, either social or ecclesiastical, no pre-Protestant, no social revolutionary. She accepted the social system, she zealously observed the rites and sacraments of the Church. She surely belonged to no dissident group. Yet Joan was not an ordinary Catholic Christian, or an ordinary anything.

She was something else - intensely individualistic, innerdirected, believing so strongly in her own revelations that after a year of imprisonment and months of questioning and pressure, and in the shadow of the scaffold, she maintained unflinchingly that her voices were those of St. Catherine and St. Margaret and that they had been sent to her by God. Joan's clash was not only with Church authority, but with the authoritarian character of the Church, the fact that it reserved for itself the power of deciding what was the truth.

Thus the Church - conducted 1456 Rehabilitation found the 1431 Church - conducted trial unjust and fraudulent. The Church raised Joan to sainthood strictly for her virtues. No mention was made of her military accomplishments, her martyrdom, her voices, or her visions. By a reverberating irony, while Joan is now a saint, both Catherine and Margaret have been stricken from the Church calendar because of doubts that they ever really existed......

Have a great weekend.

KHARMA CHAMELEON

This story was on the BBC news tonight.

Boy George on imprisonment charge
Boy George fronted the 80s pop band Culture Club
Singer and DJ Boy George has been charged with the false imprisonment of a 28-year-old man, police have said.
The offence is alleged to have taken place at the 47-year-old's home in Ravey Street, Hackney, east London on 28 April.
The former Culture Club frontman, whose real name is George O'Dowd, was bailed and is due to appear before Thames Magistrates' Court on 22 November.
"Mr O'Dowd was charged on Monday," said a police spokesman.

Now we all love Boy George, but it got me thinking in a wicked way about songs that might fit the story line, and I just knew that my fellow bloggers would have some ideas. (I'm sure George would see the funny side).


To start things off I thought of this song: (Click on the picture if you need a clue).


and then this one sprang to mind......



So my fellow bloggers what songs can you think of................................................... ??????

WE ALL NEED A PROP...................

Several years ago I thought my life had hit its lowest low, motivation had left me, my mo-jo had no go. Then a very special person in my life gave me this poem. I keep it with me at all times and over the years it has become a very valuable reminder to me that with time, difficulties, whatever they maybe, will pass/heal or go away!!!!!!

I really should print another copy, as the sheetof A4 is wearing thin along the crease's from my constant folding, but the name of the bearer of this treasured gift, and the big X make this one irreplaceable to me.
Not so very long ago I felt the need to read this again, and its magic poured over me.
I'm sure many will have heard it before, but for those who haven't I want to share..

DON'T YOU QUIT

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road your trudging, seems all up hill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high;

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit-

Rest if you must, but Don't you Quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As everyone of us sometimes learns,

And many a fellow turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out.

Don't give up though the pace seems slow-

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than it seems,

To a faint and faltering man;

Often the stuggler has given up,

When he might have captured the victors cup;

And he learned too late when the night came down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out-

The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It might be near when it seems so afar;

So stick to the fight when your hardest hit-

It's when things seem worst, that you must

NOT QUIT....