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Thought for the Week

Clifton College's Chaplain, Kim Taplin, brings us his 'Thought for the Week'

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One of life's great meanings

The newborn are captivating. Imagine five adults sitting in a circle watching a one day old baby girl lying in her Moses basket. She does nothing but sleep (and occasionally twitch!), but she has the power to evoke such fascination and unconditional love from people who did not even know her just twenty-four hours earlier. A nativity cameo in the front room of a Canterbury terrace.

As she slept for a couple of hours on her grandfather's chest, next to his heart, he reflected upon this miracle of "flesh of my flesh of my flesh." Notwithstanding all convictions about faith or religion, here is one truth to which all of the world's great thinkers would assent – from the Dalai Lama to Richard Dawkins, all recognise in the face of a newborn child one of life's great meanings.

6 September 2010

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