21 MARCH 1992, Page 38

Hard

It's hard to forgive the trivial things, the dirt, the incompetence, the self-neglect and the shambling practices.

It's difficult to forgive the smells, the tobacco, the drink, the violence, the need to be in control: the desire to be top bully in a little world. It's difficult to forgive them your snobbery. It's difficult to need so much forgiveness, to be ready for a heaven where there are mothers and fathers and uncles and children.

Herbert Lomas