The Other Slide

 My Grandad died just before I was 8, but I still have a few good memories. One especially - something had happened and left me feeling very sad. I went down the garden to his shed where he did his woodworking, to talk to him about it. I told him I couldn't stop thinking about the sad thing.

"You know the slide projector we have at church, Ang, which we use to show pictures. The carrier holds two slides at a time. One slide goes in, and then your Dad pushes it across to the next slide, and swaps the first one over... And the pictures keep changing?" I knew what he was talking about.

"Well sometimes your mind fills up with a sad or bad picture and you can't seem to see anything else. What you need to do is always keep a good picture in reserve. Something special and beautiful - your Dad's smile, Mum standing at the school gate, your favourite flower... Then when there's a bad picture, quickly push it out of the way and focus on the other slide, that will help you to feel brighter."

Grandad told me that Paul, in the Bible, wrote a letter to his friends in Philippi encouraging them to have another picture in reserve [not that Paul used slide projectors] I've never forgotten Grandad's advice. The media this week has been full of unpleasantness of one sort and another. I've tried not to dwell on it, but rather to push the "other slide" into place, and think of better things. It really helps me - I recommend it