Showing everything tagged as Revd Dr Sam Wells

There’s an improvisation game that actors play, called Headteacher, which goes like this. The teacher arrives late carrying the register and a pair of glasses. He starts to quieten down the class, but when he puts his glasses on he sees not a class but the school governors. He rapidly heads to the door, but the door sticks and he struggles to open it. Eventually he escapes, but re-enters the room a short while later, taking it to be the staff room.

When I was in year 4, school was really only about one thing. That one thing was the football game we played at break time. One day the ball got kicked onto the school roof by mistake. My friends and I faced the unthinkable prospect of 45 minutes’ break time with no ball to entertain us. Can you imagine?

In 1915 the American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon coined the term ‘fight or flight’ to describe how the nervous system of an animal’s body responds to threats. Quickly the insight was applied to human reactions in a much wider context.

Two years ago in the Brexit referendum this country was divided between leavers and remainers. In truth few remainers believed the European Union was the fount of every blessing, while few leavers really thought Britain would finally realise its eternal destiny the moment it left the EU.