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Two months ago we had never heard of a vuvuzela, now we wish we had never heard one. The constant drone of thousands of the plastic trumpets will be our abiding memory of the World Cup 2010, not the quality of football played or the sportsmanship exhibited.

The origin of the vuvuzela is as a traditional South African instrument made from a kudu horn, used to summon members of a community together and a good one would sound like an elephant. Alas, when played by 50,000 people at once they sound more like a swarm of particularly angry bees that have got stuck inside your head; even as I write this I can hear my ears throbbing and a headache feels to be on its way. A good blast on a vuvuzela reaches 127 decibels, which is louder than a chainsaw or an airhorn, loud enough to cause pain and exposure of just a few minutes can lead to hearing problems. A recent correspondent to The Times was complaining about the World Cup as his parrot had dropped mimicking his master and decided to start being a living vuvuzela. I feel very sorry for the letter writer; at least you can turn the sound down on the tv.
We always have this problem; we pass a radio or a tv and the snippet of the tune playing we catch manages to stick in our brains and goes round and round and round. It doesn’t seem to matter if the tune is one we enjoy or one we hate – once it’s in your head it stays there for as long as it wishes;  be it the 1812 Overture, “Agadoo doo doo, push pineapple, shake the tree” or Amazing Grace.
There’s a lovely comment in Luke’s Gospel, just after the visit of the shepherds to the infant Jesus: Luke 2v19 tells us that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Again, 12 years later, after Jesus had stayed in the temple in Jerusalem and talked with the teachers, amazing them with his knowledge and insight, the same thing happened: “his mother treasured all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2v51).
Personally, I don’t want a tune going round and round my head, nor the constant drone of a vuvuzela; what I do want to be at the front of my mind is the knowledge and experience of God’s grace and love towards me. This week I found a website that downloaded a little programme onto my computer that pops up a Bible verse every time I turn my computer on; so at the start of the day, while I’m getting my thoughts together, a verse of encouragement gets into my head. I can but pray that the verses will go with me through the day and that would be much better than finding myself whistling an Abba tune. The website is www.biblepromise.com, or, if you want a vuvuzela, they’re now at half price but please don’t buy me one.

Simon Carter