Read Online Ten Tales Tall and True by Alasdair Gray - Free Book Online Page A

splendid reasons. But it is not what God wants. Paul tells us why: ‘Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Love, I am nothing.’ ‘Though I give my body to be burned, and have not Love, it profiteth me nothing.’
    In many (not all) Bibles you will read ‘charity’ where I have written ‘Love’. Paul used Greek word meaning ‘loving respect’ – the deepest affection possible between people. Charity used to mean that in English, but has come to mean ‘goodness to people who are badly off.’ This sort of goodness can be a wonderful expression of Love, but is not Love itself. People have founded hospitals
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    â€œExcuse me, I know I’m butting in again but I have something to say which will do you good if you will only listen to me and not lose your temper. There is only one reason why a man or a woman comes to a pub and it is not the booze. You could easily be drinking cans of lager in the privacy of your ain hame and it would be cheaper, for Christ’s sake. So like everybody who comes to a pub you are here for the company, so why shut me out by sticking your nose in a book? I mean no offence, but you are a very attractive woman, in spite of wearing jeans and no being very young. I cannae be too plebeian nor too old for ye neither. You would have gone to a pub higher up Byres Road if you wanted posher or younger company.”
    â€œI will tell why I come here if you promise to leave me in peace afterward.”
    â€œFair enough. Fire away.”
    â€œI have two daughters and a son in their late teens, and a homeloving husband who works in the finance department of the district council. They leave all housework to me but I enjoy keeping thehouse clean and tidy so can honestly say I do not feel exploited. I do voluntary work for Save the Children, and Amnesty International. I have no money worries, family worries, health worries and used to think I was one of the luckiest people alive. Nothing seems to have changed but my life is now almost unbearable. No doubt a doctor would blame the menopause and prescribe Valium. I think I’ve suddenly started seeing myself clearly after eighteen years of looking after other people.
    â€œYou see my father was a Church of Scotland minister and I loved him a lot – he was kind and distant and mysterious. Like most Protestant clergymen he was probably embarrassed by drawing wages to go about looking better than other people. The best clergymen get over their embarrassment by working hard – running soup kitchens, getting decent clothes for families who can’t afford them, visiting the lonely. My father’s church was in a posh suburb. Everybody in the congregation seemed prosperous so we never noticed the poor. He spent most of the time between meals in his study, writing sermons for Sunday. They were no better than other ministers’ sermons but his elocution and manners were perfect, old ladies loved him, everybody admired what they called his
unworldliness
. I only noticed he was a fraud when I got to university.
    â€œI enjoyed university because I believed I wasbecoming better – better than him. I took Divinity and was preparing for the ministry …
    â€œWait a minute! You were studying to be a Church of Scotland minister?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œSince when has the Church of Scotland allowed women ministers?”
    â€œSince the sixties. A woman applied for ordination and there was no law against it.”
    â€œThough not a churchgoer or a strict Christian I have strong Protestant sympathies, and women ministers just don’t seem right.”
    â€œThen leave me alone.”
    â€œNo no! I’m sorry! I mean go on and tell me what is wrong with your marriage. My own marriage is not what it should be. I will regard it as a great favour if you ignore my interruption and spill the beans.”
    â€œAll right. At university I joined a