COMING ALONGSIDE
COMING ALONGSIDE
Every one of us knows just what it is like to experience, when we think that this time we are without hope … and then that distant light that fast becomes a looming, almost deific Presence, and then the shaft of light that finally catches us in its full beam, and we are safe.
This beautiful term Coming Alongside means the earth, means everything to us all, at some time or another in our lives.
Even on the River Avon or the River Severn in the last century, I recall those times when we would find ourselves gently coming alongside some misfortune. The Line would be thrown; already, Mum was down below getting things sorted, and Dad and I would be calling the emergency services and confirming the rendezvous point and my sisters and brothers-in-law would all be pitching in.
Things can go very wrong very quickly, as we all know, on water.
All of us come alongside in different ways.
Let us never be too proud. Let us never be unaware.
This is a given in Liverpool. We just do it. We really are a maritime people.
6 March 2023
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Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
