The day they buried Margaret Thatcher

Today saw the Ceremonial Funeral of Baroness Thatcher take place in London which, I was delighted to see, went off without any major incident – just a small number of protestors on Ludgate Hill and some celebrations in the former coal mining villages and towns of Yorkshire – Goldthorpe for example where an effigy of the former prime minister was burned after a mock funeral procession.  Because of a long staff meeting I had to attend in Alderbury, I missed the funeral service itself – only seeing the cortege take the body from Westminster to St. Clement Danes and the beginning of the gun carriage procession towards St. Paul’s Cathedral.   I was picked up by Debbie outside the Methodist Church and together with Nils we drove over to Alderbury for a meeting which lasted until 2.30 p.m.  Arriving back home at 3 p.m. I had a telephone conference with a client.  I then wrote up my sky at night article for the Parish Magazine before having a home made Chinese meal prepared by Sara.  I then drove over to Seend near Devizes for my next tutorial session in which we discussed the meaning of the term pastoral care and started discussing “personhood” – what does it mean to be a person and how does this differ from being any other animal and finally the concept of “health” – what is a healthy person?  This brought into play a number of questions about ethics, healing, reconciliation and so on.  Quite a philosophical and psychological session.  Finally arrived back home at 10.30 p.m. and watched some of Baroness Thatcher’s funeral on the television and proof read and sent off my magazine article.