THEOLOGICALITIES Part 1

THEOLOGICALITIES – RECOLLECTIONS IN 2 PARTS

PART 1 – FAMILY AND SCHOOL

By DEREK STRAHAN

This is neither a treatise nor even a themed article. It began as a short musing about theology and belief systems. It then morphed bit by bit into a semi-autobiographical something or other providing therapy as such ramblings tend to do as they trigger recollections of times past.?I invite you to read it in the hope that it might provide passing entertainment. It comes with pictures and links to music and, since it is semi-autobiographical the cover photo is one of myself at aged 11, in 1946, clearly pleased with my treasured possession, an HMV windup portable gramophone, a gift from my father who finally responded to my ceaseless requests to own one. Photographic evidence suggests that I was of a cheerful disposition at this time – though I do remember being often scolded because of displays of bad temper.

Theologicalities 1 – FREE WILL

Somebody recently asked me if I "believe in God." I haven’t been asked that for a while, and when it happens I get bogged down in semantics and the questioner loses patience because I don’t seem to be able to give a direct yes or no answer. If asked I first feel obliged to explain that I do not generally rely on any "belief" to give me reassurance, since the definition of "belief' is the acceptance of a hypothesis without proof - my only exception to this is that I do "believe" in "free will" since if I really believed that I could not control my own destiny then I would immediately discontinue my existence. I accept that the "cause" of many future events is already planted in the present, but experiments in quantum physics indicate that the present can influence the past, which must also mean that the future can influenced the present. Therefore I plant "wishes" (for which read “intentions” and/or ”hopes”) in the future in the “belief “ that these “wishes” will influence the present that I inhabit - in both a temporal and material sense. You will recall that fairies can grant “wishes” and the good thing about fairies is that they are not judgemental regarding what you wish for. But deities are, since you are neither supposed to act immorally nor to make immoral “wishes” regarding your future behaviour and/or prospects.?An immoral “wish” can be converted into a more effective “spell” through the use of “magic” and religions generally disapprove of “magic” (except their proprietary magic known as miracles.)?Other kinds of magic are deemed “black”.?

However, (returning to my “answer”) I do not feel the need to seek prior approval of my "wishes" from a supposed deity. Those who feel that need are obliged to utter pre-approved "prayers" which is what you call a "wish" that will only happen if God approves of it – which is not a given, even if the “wish” is morally conformist, because God will only approve of your wish if God also finds it to be compatible with the “mysterious way” in which God is purported to “move”.

As regards "do I believe in God?" I would first ascertain if the questioner "believes" that God created the universe. The answer would inevitably be "yes", ergo I would be able to respond that since the universe does exist, and if it was created by God, then the existence of the Universe is in itself proof of the existence of God. Thus I do not have to “believe” in God, I merely accept his/her/its existence as a fact, proof being available that God does exist, after the fact, since the existence of the Universe is proof of the existence of the entity that created it.

In case that is not clear, I hereby re-state: All I have to do is accept the proven fact that the universe does indeed exist and in accepting that I also accept that the Creator of the Universe exists, since the existence of the Universe is proof of the existence of its Creator.

Theologicalities 2 -?AFTER LIFE INSURANCE

That said, I do think that most of the existing "versions" of God that various religions assert are definitely created by humans and therefore reflect the limitations of human perception.?Such Gods are neither disinterested nor impassive, and not necessarily compassionate. They serve 3 purposes entertained by those who create them, namely (in most cases) alpha dominant males:

1) To allow humans to think that by praying to God they can have some control over their own destiny …

2) To allow humans to think that by sacrificing to a deity they can further improve their chance of having a wish granted …

3) To vest power in alpha dominant males who wish to exercise absolute authority by claiming to be the agent/priest/prophet of that particular God (that they have invented) in order to been seen to be acting with divine authority.

The above 3 purposes are clearly political, not religious. They are also pernicious since each religion views other religions as socio-political rivals and conducts wars to eliminate those rivals and maintain predominance.?The principle tactic used to retain adherents is to foment fear of punishment for heresy to be applied both in this life and the next. Consequently most religions are best described as scams claiming to offer “after-life insurance” - at an inordinately high premium. (Perhaps better described as “after-life reassurance”) Scams because if we are all already in possession of an immortal soul, we all already live forever. You can’t cancel eternity. You can’t insure against loss of what you already possess in perpetuity. You don’t need to.

It seems to me to be no coincidence that both the Mafia and Christianity originate from the same culture, since both organisations run protection rackets. Definition: Tax/enforced donation obtained by issuing threat to wreck business/life unless tax paid to eliminate threat. Those who arrogate to themselves the right to speak on behalf of God are often the same people as those who presume that by asking: "Do you believe in God?" they are in some way putting you on the spot: that?if you deny the existence of God through disbelief you are in some way incriminating yourself. It is to incriminate you that they arm themselves with dogma disguised as theology. I respectfully suggest that you choose not to be fooled by such people, especially since much of what seems to be theological sense is really just illogical nonsense!

What you are reading here is my attempt to pre-empt their strategy by explaining why I, for one, do not need to “believe” in anything - except “free will”. You would then perhaps expect them to berate me for not accepting that everything happens according to "God's will". But they can't do that! Why not? Because Christians can't deny the existence of "free will". Why not??Because the existence of “free will” is part of their “belief” system!

An important part of Christian theology is that God does indeed grant us "free will". Without the exercise of "free will" there would be no sin! So with "free will" Man has been given the opportunity and the ability to choose between good and evil. And part of the deal is that Evil also has to exist because without evil there would be no Satan. Without Satan there would be no need for God, since God's main purpose is to "forgive" sin and without Satan’s temptations there would be no sin. But Christians rarely engage in argument where deductive reasoning and logic play a part. The exercise of reasoning and logic is the Devil's work and you engage in it at your peril.

In early drama, in medieval morality plays, the Devil was a popular villain whose best laid plans always went awry – like those of Sylvester the Cat in Warner Bros immortal loony Tunes cartoons.

When we think of the Devil he looks something like this.

The other reason why Satan is needed is to explain why God permits horror. God is, of course, the embodiment of Good. Therefore nothing Evil that happens is God's fault. Evil is the fault of the Devil. Yet nevertheless and "mysteriously" everything that happens is part of "God's plan." (You can see why Christians don't like logic!)

The other bothersome thing about Christianity is that it claims to be a monotheistic religion. Yet the Christian God is Himself a "Trinity" - 3 in 1, Father, Son & Holy Ghost. An elaborate strategy to have it three ways - Jesus as a God and God as a God with a Spirit thrown in as part of the bargain.?Lest that 3-in-1 strategy might not direct an appeal to pagans sufficient to induce conversion to Christianity, the deal also includes an additional attraction to those who prefer to worship an assortment of deities. Christianity does, in fact of worship, have many deities – perhaps better described as sub-deities, of both gender! If you define a deity as a spirit representing an aspect of nature and/or humanity to whom one may offer prayers (the pagan definition) then Christianity certainly does also embody a great and increasing number of lesser deities. These are called "saints". These exist in sufficient number to qualify Christianity as a polytheistic Pagan religion.

If I seem somewhat obsessed by all of this it's because I'm from Northern Ireland and I was exposed to a great deal of theology in my earlier years - and had to think myself out of it! A useful exercise to this end is to compare brass with diamond. I find brass a much more exciting substance than diamonds. It is a blend of two other metals to create a substance from which exciting musical instruments can be made. Diamonds, on the other hand, are as plentiful around the planet as sand. They are made expensive by creating artificial scarcity. They are mainly used to placate female vanity, but I value them more as needles used to track music on LP records which, mercifully, are making a come back!

How does that relate to a debate on the existence or otherwise of God? Hardly at all, except that the topic is much more interesting to me than a debate on the existence or otherwise of a Creator whose works are proof of the existence of he/she/it who created everything, including diamonds, which, being worth lot of money, are also de facto currency. And, in passing, as to my attitude to money, I am exceedingly interested in it but I accept that, in the arts, you don't make money unless others think they can make money out of you!

For that to happen, in music, people have to be able to listen to the music you create, and the moneyed people who could support you in creating more music also need to have observed the favourable reactions of these people when listening to your music, to then feel it worth their while to bring your product to the attention of many more! For that to happen your music must be performed. Here's a piece of my music that did get performed. It's a jazz fusion depiction of the Apocalypse titled (what else?) "Triple 6". 7 top Australian jazz musicians play “Triple Six” (666), 1st Movt of Derek Strahan’s Jazz Fusion Suite: a depiction in music of events leading to the Apocalypse, as in “Revelation” - hence the title.

https://youtu.be/wFnl051Sn-8

What is the relevance of this observation to the discussion in hand? Simply that one of my “wishes” for the not too distant future is that moneyed people should support my creation in the future of certain large-scale works of music! To that extent my “belief” in “free will” is motivated by self-interest. If I have already succeeded in placing my completed operas in the future – or at any rate in an alternative future of my choice to which I am therefore heir – then I am merely moving through time towards the fulfilment of my “wish”, my “intention”.

I have not been idle. To further my “intention”(4-opera cycle on “Atlantis”) the four necessary libretti have already been written.?Also, in all 2 hours of music have been written in chamber works developing material for the opera cycle. You can hear some of this work in the closing section, Part 5, of my preparatory work “Eden In Atlantis”, a 25 minute Scena for soprano, flute/alto flute & piano on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWBAOTSQbU

This is the CD cover of a release on the Australian Jade label along with splendid music by 4 other Australian composers

Theologicalities 3 – THROWING STONES

You will note that I have not commented on other religions during this discourse, but only, as an example of religiosity, on Christianity since it is the religion that I grew up with and about which I have some detailed knowledge. My knowledge about other religions is superficial, in that although I have only read somewhat about them I have not had existential experience of them as do those who practise their teachings. Therefore I refrain from detailed comment on their faiths out of respect for their adherents. There are three related reasons for practising such restraint:

1. Among adherents of all religions there are ordinary, decent people along with less admirable types such as priests, zealots and extremists. I see no reason to insult the decent people by gratuitously subjecting their beliefs to the kind of analytical cross-examination of the religion in which I was baptised – without my permission! Here is a photograph of me as an infant post-baptism, held up by my mother as a kind of prize plum pudding surrounded by assorted British colonials doubtless happily anticipating suitable servings of whiskey & soda to celebrate the event. My father is seated to her (camera) right, and my sister at his feet.

Self as newly baptised Plum Pudding

2. It is the extremists who are dangerous and who exhibit extreme personality disorder. I prefer, where possible, not to antagonise such people since I would prefer that my inevitable, eventual death does not come about as the result of my being killed as an infidel. Even though, clearly, I am an infidel. I am also an infidel who, through self-imposed study, am well aware that, until 200 years ago, Christians themselves engaged in exactly the same kind of excesses that are currently being practised by extremists, who, for good reason, are termed terrorists. Until reforms initiated by the new values of the 18th Century Enlightenment, Christians themselves held the entire Western world to ransom through religious schisms, of the kind currently operating in the Middle East and on the Indian subcontinent.

These schisms result in endless warfare that can only be ended by applying strict separation between Church and State and denying Church the right to declare war. In addition Christianity, for centuries, oppressed women not only through theology dictating submission to men, but also by means of a pernicious form of sexual genocide against women through the sport of witch-hunting and of burning at the stake. The practitioners of such offenses against human rights are less motivated by religion of whatever denomination than by personality disorders of an extreme nature.

3. People who live in glasshouses should not throw stones.

You will therefore have gathered that my own views about the role of religion generally as a social influence derived from my own experiences with Christianity. These have not been positive. I come from two families each with strong religious involvement. My paternal grandfather was a Moderator of the Presbyterian Church based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. My maternal grandfather abandoned a very successful career as an architect in Belfast to become a missionary in Africa, and had several books published giving an account of his work. I have a copy of one titled "Can Africa Be Won?" With that kind of family background it was difficult to avoid religious inculcation, if not by direct instruction then, even more effectively, by inferred morality.

Theologicalities 4 – CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

To explain my experiences with religion I offer as brief a summary of my beginnings as I can. I was born in Penang, Malay (as it was then called) on May 28th, 1935. My early childhood was spent in colonial Malaya until the age of 7, when my mother, my sister & I were evacuated to Perth, Western Australia, as Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942. From my perspective there are two curious observations to be made about the Japanese Imperial army. One, it’s really odd that Germany’s primary allies in the 2nd world war were of a race that the Nazis, according to their supremacist philosophy, would regard as inferior. Two, I owe a debt of gratitude to the Japanese Imperial Army for deconstructing British colonial society in Malaya, since, due to the evacuation to Australia, I was able to spend what I regard as the best years of my childhood in Western Australia, running wild on beaches, swimming everyday at Claremont baths and attending school as a day boy. From late 1945 my family was based in Northern Ireland, where, though I had committed no crime, I was incarcerated for 8 years as a boarder at Campbell College, Belfast. At this institution, from the age of 16, I began to experience considerable conflict with authority and with community mores generally, resulting from my interest in music and my desire to become a composer, and also as a result of developing views on religion and politics regarded as radical.?

The irony is that my radical views resulted from my intensive reading of the most radical anti-clerical literature ever written: the work of the French philosophes, Voltaire, Descartes, La Rochefoucauld and others whose writings laid the basis for the French Revolution and the movement known as the 18th century Enlightenment.

Voltaire

This literature was read as part of the studies I was obliged to undertake to prepare for Cambridge University entrance exams. Of course I was not supposed to take any personal heed of the content of such writings, but just to attain sufficient familiarity with them to be able to answer examination questions on that literature and write pertinent essays. Though my first preference was to engage in academic study in music it was “decided” that I should, in effect, discontinue my musical studies and instead concentrate on modern languages, French and Spanish – these being the only “foreign” languages taught at Campbell College.?

Well, I did as I was told, and did it well – well enough to qualify for a scholarship to study said modern languages at Cambridge University. In passing I must mention how annoyed I was because, due to my father’s high income, though I had earned the money, my “scholarship” funding was “disqualified” and my father had to pay the University fees anyway!?He earned a high salary as a Professor of Social Medicine & Hygiene at Singapore University. I was annoyed because I did not want to have to feel indebted to him.

Having done my academic duty and become a “Cambridge scholar” I then had to continue my residency at Campbell College as a senior student: bored and unhappy! Vocal expression of radical views and refusal to attend church services lead to severe corporal punishment being inflicted on me (then aged 17) by my then house master, a retired military gentleman, now deceased, whom we shall refer to as the Major. The event began formally. He sat me down and embarked on a philosophical discussion to ascertain my views. That done he moved on to the real purpose of the discussion: “Well, Derek, that was very interesting but we can’t have a senior showing such a bad example to juniors and I’m afraid I’m going to have to beat you.” Arming himself with a gym shoe I was instructed to bend over. During the infliction of said punishment the zealous Major so lost control of himself as to exceed the legal limit of 12 blows continuing to lash me erratically with a gym shoe and breathing very heavily. I remember deducing that he was enjoying himself. I counted the blows: 13, 14, 15 and at 16. I myself terminated the punishment by moving out of the way of the assault.

One of my best friends at school was the late Derek Bell, later well known now as harpist for The Chieftains, and a distinguished composer and performer. Much later, Sydney about 20 years ago, I caught up with Derek when The Chieftains gave a concert at the Sydney Town Hall. We exchanged reminiscences and Derek remembered well my staggering back to my study and proudly displaying my injured bum to my fellow seniors. It was bleeding.

Still bored, and still a resident border at the school, I asked my History teacher to suggest some interesting reading for me, and he recommended I read the plays and prefaces of George Bernard Shaw. I did so, with great and consuming interest as Shaw clearly continued the radical work of the French philosophes that I so admired.

George Bernard Shaw (Image courtesy of Opher’s World)

Later I gave a talk to the Literary Society on the work of George Bernard Shaw, in which I compared the work of Jesus Christ in his society, debunking the social hypocrisy of the Pharisees, with the similar work of Shaw in Victorian England deconstructing middle class morality. The same English master who had recommended I read Shaw and who had organised my "talk" apparently had three sleepless nights worrying that I had committed blasphemy by favourably comparing Bernard Shaw to Jesus Christ. What would the school board of directors think? Such is the paranoia of religious bigotry in Northern Ireland. I was quickly summoned to my housemaster's study and spoken to by the Major.

He, in his inimitable fashion, proceeded to pronounce sentence, lips pursed and, as always, displaying a curious inability to look one straight in the eye (at the crucial moment of eye contact the Major's eyes would roll upward to the ceiling).?No beating this time. Instead: "Derek, we think you've been working too hard at your exams. We think you should go away and have a rest". Thus I departed Campbell College, Belfast, never to return. As my parents were both abroad in Malaya at the time, I went to stay with my aunt and uncle nearby. Their two sons, my cousins, also attended Campbell College. Following this debacle my father felt he had to take time off work to return to Belfast to “sort out the mess.” All my fault.

There is, however, a postscript.

Theologicalities 5 – FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT

To cover themselves, the authorities arranged for me to see a psychiatrist, an unnerving experience, of course, for an adolescent. The "friendly chat" over, I was given no feed back. However, later at home (the actual home owned by my parents) some mysterious impulse drew me, at a crucial moment, to the waste bin under my father's desk. There I found, crumpled up and discarded, a report from the psychiatrist that it was no doubt deemed inappropriate for me to read (lest I might develop too good an opinion of myself?).

?The text of this letter is imprinted in my frontal lobes. It said, in part: "I have read the text of Master Strahan's talk to the school Literary Society about George Bernard Shaw' work, and find his ideas to be, if anything, in advance of Shaw's. I find it surprising that the school should object to a student becoming imbued with ideas to be found in books contained in the school library."?

No smiles for camera during this post-school. pre-university period!

Photographic evidence from 1954, aged 19, suggests that I had become a trifle sombre and less inclined to smile for the camera. Perhaps even little truculent?

At Cambridge University, where, of course, I was directed to enrol in study to obtain an Arts degree in Modern Languages, I also developed an interest in theatre and cinema, and acted in a number of university productions. My musical activities were restricted to playing the piano for pleasure and going to parties where I would sing with guitar – mainly calypsos. I also acted in several University productions, to the increasing alarm of my tutor who placed an embargo on this activity as exams approached. But I have time to do some clowning

In the part of “He” in “He Who Gets Slapped”. A Russian play by Leonid Andreyev, production by Bats company at Queens’ College, Cambridge.

In 1956, aged 21, I graduated with a BA Cantab Hons in Modern Languages. (French & Spanish). I left the town of Cambridge and headed for London, to pursue (hopefully) some kind of a career as a showbiz gypsy. To clarify, my definition of showbiz encompasses all forms of dramatic and musical performance on stage and on screen, from the “highest” opera to the “lowest” forms of vaudeville. All are valid. For the next 6 years, in London, I worked as relief teacher, actor, and for a few months as Assistant Film Director with a company making commercials. During this period my interest in music composition re-emerged through admiration for the work of Rabelaisian French chansonnier Georges Brassens. (See also in Part 2 Theologicalities 8 – ERSATZ UNCLES)

Georges Brassens

Another irony, since my interest in French culture was a direct product of my University studies, and it was through French pop music of the time that I drifted back into music. While the rest of the English-speaking world was preoccupied with rock 'n rollers and folk singers, in the 1950s I began writing and performing English-language songs conceived in Gallic style, accompanying myself on guitar. In London, with Cambridge pals Chris and Paul Baron and Tony Manley we started a little club called The Living, held weekly meetings featuring songs, acts & our own movies, and released this 45rpm EP

“Gather Ye Rosebuds” front cover and back slick

I persisted in this activity until the mid-70s, earning a small income singing at coffee bars and folk venues in London and, from 1961, in Sydney, Australia. As regards my song-writing I continued with this till it got squeezed out of my schedule when I became a full-time TV writer in 1972, working on the scriptwriting team for the long-running TV series “Number 96”.

Number 96 poster

Prior to that I did score a weekly TV spot for 9 months on the Channel 7 morning show, writing a new topical song Monday of every week to perform before the 7am news – after which I went off to be a schoolteacher at North Sydney Boys High. I was overdrawn at the bank and needed the $25 appearance money. That spot ended when someone “high up” disapproved of my anti-war song about Vietnam titled “Domino Rag”. You can hear one of my songs, written a la Georges Brassens, as posted on YouTube, titled “The Puritan”.

“The Puritan” song with guitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1liKfRPBU0c

self with guitar

Back to London. Here I continued my reading of French literature for my own entertainment and instruction. This included reading the great novel by Albert Camus “L’étranger”(“The Outsider”). (See also in Part 2 Theologicalities 8 – ERSATZ UNCLES) It’s ironic that from this work in particular I was mercifully granted the realisation that it is not necessarily “wrong” not to conform.?Thus freed from the obligation to view the world from the point of view of my parents I was then able to review the advice given by them and forcefully implemented, and to conclude that the reason why my parents discouraged my interest in music and theatre (other than as a hobby) was based on a puritanical distrust of "the arts": creative expression being regarded, ultimately, as an almost sinful form of self-indulgence.

Though this attitude was never specifically spelled out, it did surface during an argument I had with my father at age 17 (before going to Cambridge) when I truculently stated my interest in "being a composer" - and I also mentioned "being an actor". He struck me and said: "To think that my father's seed should have produced this."?The burdensome philosophy that results from his kind of patriarchal thinking warrants analysis in a later article. Not here.

Later I must concede that my father was helpful in practical ways, but only because I persisted in being "myself" (a showbiz gypsy) and there was little anyone could do about this. As detailed above, at school I had done as I was told, studied hard for my Cambridge Entrance exam in Modern Languages (French & Spanish), gained a scholarship and ended up with a degree; but I really don't think my parents had any specific plan for me - other than to "fall back on teaching", or maybe enter the Foreign Service and end up becoming a Russian spy? Anyway, as a result of their attitudes and of the pervasive societal environment of Northern Ireland I developed a strong dislike of puritanism!

Theologicalities 6 – FOR YOUR OWN GOOD

As both of my parents were materially supportive I grew up thinking I should think well of them, and this is a habit of thought out of which it is hard to grow. In practise you have to become objective about your parents otherwise you will never adequately “grow up.” It’s harder to think critically about them, especially to engage in negative criticism, when they constantly make it clear that the decisions they are making about your own future are all “for your own good.” This mantra resonates to the point that if you reject their advice you tend to feel that you are betraying them. It is only when it becomes absolutely clear that their advice was entirely inappropriate to your own essential needs that you are able to achieve psychological independence.

My parents: Mrs. Joyce Strahan and Dr. John Strahan, circa 1950

Better keep in step with these two

The problems my parents had with me stemmed from their lack of understanding of who, existentially, I am and I have only been to disassociate myself from their values by seeing them, objectively, as being the creatures of their own environment and upbringing. Inherent in the teachings that were part of their upbringing was the assumption of moral continuance: that their moral values would continue into next generations as unchanging and unchangeable truths. Of course this has never been the case. There has always been a generation gap, and there have always been prodigal sons and daughters – otherwise known as “black sheep” of the family – nonconformists: but the existence of such wayward souls has in the past been excused, or explained away as an unfortunate aberration, resulting either in conditional forgiveness or in expulsion from the family hearth.

In my case the situation was not helped by my parents being largely absent as I grew up. This parental absence is quite usual in middle and upper class British society since it is almost obligatory to send children to boarding schools where, so the thinking goes, they will be taught discipline and “proper” social values. You would think that “discipline” is something that is applied, which of course it is, sometimes as quite brutal corporal punishment; but “discipline” is also taught as something you apply to yourself, having been taught “proper” values. The irony is that the social structure of a British boarding school is inherently fascist. Headmaster/mistress – the dictator. Masters/Mistresses: Heads of propaganda. Prefects: hired thugs paid by privilege. There is in this structure no hint of democracy. In this structure there is no debate, no questioning of authority. But I digress …

The absence of my parents was made more acute by the fact that my father worked overseas and, apart from being occasionally present in school holidays. Neither were ever present during school terms, and thus never witnessed any of my activities in drama or music that at school were quite extensive. Consequently they merely thought of such activities as a kind of purely social “participation” in school life. It came as a complete surprise and an unwelcome shock to them when it became apparent that it was these activities that I wished to pursue as careers. In fact, it is only over the last two years – having reached the age of 82 - that the degree of their unawareness has really hit me! And that it was their unawareness, perhaps even more than their moral judgement, that motivated their indifference to my ambitions. With that realisation has also come awareness on my part that I compensated for their absence by selecting from a wide range of options, a number of ersatz uncles and aunts, and also an ersatz father – but never an ersatz mother. Tell Sigmund about that.

To be fair, my parents did bring me, aged 15, to Singapore for one summer holiday in 1950 and the evidence of photos shows that I appreciated the experience. My father duties in public health required him to report on conditions in many localities and environment, thus my presence on Chinese fishing stakes off Singapore. On return to Northern Ireland my holiday headgear attracted the attention of a press photographer.

Self at fishing stakes, 1950 - Self with headgear

I remember experiencing with great pleasure the tropical heat of Singapore, as something I knew well – which I did, having lived in Malaya till the age of 7, and then enjoyed Australian sunshine till the age of 10. One thing I did import from Australia and brought with me back to Northern Ireland was a love of swimming and diving, as evidenced by these photos taken in 1949 at the Whitehead Swimming Baths on Belfast Lough. Why would I not return to Australia? I did, in 1961.

High diving at Whitehead 1948

Before moving on to Part 2 – ERSATZ RELATIVES – I would like to assure you that despite discouragement and obstacles to my “becoming a composer” I did persist in this aim and by now, aged 82, have written a fair amount of music though, in my view, only 10% of what I should have produced. Why the shortfall? Money is necessary to survival and my twin careers as writer and composer have run in parallel, rather than entwined in works for music theatre as I would have preferred, and is still my primary aim. Composing music is about 70% more labour-intensive than writing words, and, per minute of content, pays about 70% less! Nevertheless, if music is your passion you have to obey what passion demands.?What music I have written covers film, chamber music (both instrumental and vocal) and orchestral music, much of which is posted on YouTube and on Soundcloud. During periods when I have been truculently “on strike” for writing music due to lack of funding, I have turned to writing plays that I am happy to write “on spec”. You can write these longhand on a deck chair during an ocean cruise with a rum cocktail to hand. These include plays from which libretti for operas will be derived as and when I choose to commit myself to writing the music scores for them. If don’t get to write the music, tough. You’ll never hear it!

For a log of 14 plays written to date these please see the close of Theologicalities Part 2.

Since 2001 I have had some association with the Australian National University School of Music where two of my works, written for clarinetist Alan Vivian, have been premiered. My Clarinet Concerto was received with enthusiasm at its premiere at the ANU School of Music in 2002, and has been broadcast in full and the 3rd movement alone quite often. It uses strong elements of jazz and saxophones are included in the score. Link to 3rd Movement is:

https://youtu.be/MCyrYOXsL9M

It was also performed in San Antonio, Texas by Lux Musicae on

April 4, 7:30 - Palmetto Theater at the North by Northwest Music Festival, featuring Ivan Petruzziello, music director J Emmanuel Godoy.

Poster for Texas – CD cover for Canberra

I trust you are enjoying my Theologicalities. They are offered as entertainment. Advisedly, since comedians are less likely than priests and prophets to be martyred for their beliefs – especially a comedian who, like myself, has no beliefs – other than the above-asserted “belief “ in “free will”. I use the word “comedian” in its widest sense and wildest sense, as derived from the Italian – commedia dell’arte.

In THEOLOGICALITIES – PART 2 – I offer recollections of remarkable individuals, a strangely assorted assembly, but that’s life! These people provided influences outside of family and school who I choose to call my ERSATZ RELATIVES. Their names are: Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Leslie Caron, Beethoven, Wagner, GB Shaw, Albert Camus, Georges Brassens, Ted Hughes, Yeshua (also known as Jesus) and David Young (my English teacher at Campbell College whose influence transcended otherwise negative experiences).

I close Part 1 with a photo of myself taken in 1948 engaged in a favourite pursuit: reading – specifically reading from a print book that being the only option at that time – and it remains my preferred mode, since a print book never needs recharging and you can take it anywhere: on a plane, a train, a boat, a café, a beach or a field without having to be "connected”.

Yours faithfully – Derek Strahan