surprised by joy a tree and a swan respectively

Wandering through the underbrush.
I find the stump of a tall tree which I cut down last year.
It had grown to over thirty feet tall.
I cut it to let the sky back into the garden.
I thought I'd killed it but I left the stump as a kind of monumental statue.
Now the stump is bursting with new growth.
Green shoots everywhere.
It's like a living sermon from the creation.
I think of my wearied soul, broken mind, lost innocence, and dead heart.
Like this tree.
A moment of joy can illumine a universe.
Everything is coming to life again in the light of the Lord.
Later at the lake I see the cadet swans performing their ablutions.
It's all very cute.
They are dunking themselves, splashing with their wings, immersing their heads, waving their bums in the air like they don't care, ruffling their feathers, and preening.
Some of them roll on their sides like foundering ships and then right themselves.
One gets out of the water and comes to dry herself beside me.
A creature merely,
But what magnificence crafted into form.
The achieve of, the mastery of the thing, as Gerard Manley Hopkins might put it.
I look at the swans.
How well made they are.
Could it be.
Could it be that the atheism which threatens me so much is not rational at all but actually ridiculous.
How could anyone seriously believe the notion that swans could be an accident, that their beauty could be random, that my rejoicing in the sight of their beauty, my very capacity to perceive it, could itself be meaingless.
The creation shines with beauty.
Beauty speaks of God.
As does truth.
As does goodness.
As do people.
Yes people.
They seem to cause all our suffering but yet in the mystical sense people are the best thing the most beautiful thing, God made.
Ah beauty.
Beauty. Beauty. Beauty.
Joy. Joy. Joy.
God. God. God.
And more miraculous more beautiful than beauty is our beholding of it.
Every living thing every created thing beauteously and bounteously proclaims joy.
Doubt no more oh my soul but believe.

more unused footage from the eagle has landed

Interior. Radl's office. Radl is talking to his aide Hofer. Paratroops are parading in the Square below the window.

Radl: Any messages?

Hofer: Ze Fuhrer has sent you a telegram.

Radl: What does it say?

Hofer: You are all a bunch of Willies.

Radl: Damn. I wanted to be a Helmut.

Hofer: Ze Fuhrer also says he wants us to stop pronouncing W's as V's and to learn how to say a th rather than a z.

Radl: (Exploding) Vat? Now? At ziss late stage? Ze only alternative to zese hokey ridiculous accents is to actually learn German. Do zose idiots at ze High Command not realise how difficult German is? Now! With the war lost, they want us to actually learn German. It's madness. Who would even consider going to a film called Der Adler Ist Gelandet. Madness, I tell you.

Hofer: How did your meeting go with Himmler.

Radl: Ze fools. Zey want me to kidnap Churchill.

Hofer: What will they do with him if you get him?

Radl: Germany is bankrupt. Vee have spent a fortune on ziss war. Now ze war is lost. Zey probably hope to look for a ransom or something, I mean somezing, so they can break even on the deal.

Hofer; And what do we do now?

Radl: I need to find a man of incredible bravery, who can overcome impossible odds, pass as British, and bring Churchill back alive. By ze way, who is zat tough, charismatic, oddly likeable paratroop Colonel parading his men up and down ever zere?

Hofer: Zat is Bill Oddie from ze Goodies.

Radl: No, not him. Ze ozzer one.

Hofer: Zat is Colonel Hans Steiner of ze 12th Fallschirmjager Alpine Corps.

Radl:What do you know about him?

Hofer: His mother was an American and his father was Michael Caine.

Radl: Well ziss is a turnip for ze books.

the verdict of history

"Do you think I was completely wrong about the Corona Virus?" I ask.
"I'd say you were a hundred percent wrong," says the Brig.
"Do you not think I had a point about the risk of the police getting out of control?" I enquire. "I know the police are quiet at the moment. They're quiet because Chief Of Police Martin Callanan was fired after being caught trying to frame hero cop Maurice McCabe for child abuse. They're quiet because Callanan's successor as Chief Of Police Noreen O'Sullivan was fired for her complicity in Calllanan's nefarious activities and for multiple manifest and manifold corruptions of her own. They're quiet because of the discovery of the scam whereby the Police Training College was laundering money for the mafia. They're quiet because they were caught falsifying statistics for Ireland's murder rate. They're quiet because of the discovery of another of their scams whereby they claimed to have tested a million car drivers for drunk driving while no tests had taken place and the cost of the imaginary tests was again being laundered on behalf of police officers unknown. Do you not think I was even a little bit right in saying that this Corona Virus panic could give the police bad habits? Or could give them an excuse to return to some of their bad habits from the not so distant past?"
"No," says the Brig, "because if that started to happen, people would put a stop to it."
"They didn't put a stop to Kinneavey," I said grimly.

newly discovered deleted scene from the eagle has landed

Himmler: Vere are ze Britishers now?

Radl: Zey are on an island off ze coast of Europe, mein, mein, well you're not exactly a Fuhrer. What are you?

Himmler: I'm a Reichsminister. Vee vant you to kidnap Winston Churchill.

Radl: Oh. No problem.

Himmler: Ze plan is that if you succeed, I vill get ze credit. If you fail, vee vill shoot you.

Radl: Oh for the love of Pete. I mean, I mean, Heil Hitler.

Himmler: You may go. Keep me apprised of your every move.

Radl: Jawohl mein, mein whatever it is. I am turning away from your desk, slowly, almost fatalistically.There is a grim set to my jaw. I am walking smartly due south towards the door. I am reaching for the door handle.

Himmler: Not like that you fool. I mean keep me apprised of everything you do regarding the kidnap of Winston Churchill.

Radl: Oh right.

FX: Coolo Lalo Schifrin music.