RAY'S VIEWS ONLINE

This is one more, spontaneous, one-off interjection into my current series of posts on my religious ‘paradigm’, triggered by my previous one on the music of Frederick Delius, who set to supremely beautiful music, a poem of W. E Henley entitled “A Late Lark Singing”.

When we see a radiant, wide spread, deep red sunset, we absorb ourselves in it, and maybe reach for our smartphone to capture it, and share it with others. Why does such a sunset have such an impact?

We’re sharing in the ‘death’ of the sun, as it sinks below the horizon and ‘passes away’ from our sight, but it’s an agreeable, contented and memorable ‘death’, which is what we’d surely want for ourselves and for one another.

This special moment, and its deep meaning, is perfectly caught at the end of Henley’s poem …..

None of us should be denied at least the possibility of such a ‘sunset’, which is why I’m a supporter of the soon to be debated ‘Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill’ in the Scottish Parliament. If you’re a fellow Scot, give it your support. You, and your family, at the end of your day, may be very glad that you did.