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From the Reverend Richard Coles:

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I arrived at the station the other day in time for my train, but it was cancelled due to indifference at Flitwick, or something, which was awkward because I had to make a connection to get where I wanted to go. I wasn鈥檛 the only one. Next to me a familiar figure in a purple shirt was also looking anxiously at the Departure Board.听

It was a bishop, on his way to a funeral, but not now on the one train that would get him there on time. It so happened that this funeral was happening in a place where I could make my connection, and so I offered him a lift. Accepted.

Entertaining the boss. How many sitcoms have used that as a premise for comedy, from The Good Life to Brooklyn Nine Niner? Normally you have time to prepare, to banish the dogs to the garden, straighten the cushions, take out the empties, but as we walked towards my car I was suddenly stricken with anxiety that there could be incriminating evidence of my disorderly life.

I鈥檇 had it cleaned only a week or two before, so the interior, normally a symphony of dog hair, till receipts and half chewed winegums, was in reasonably good order, and the exterior, which normally looks like fly paper at a landfill site, was discernible as bodywork. Too late now. We got in, buckled up, and spent a companionable hour on the road; of course we did, for in spite of hierarchy-induced anxiety, we had much to talk about. Brexit, musical chairs at Number Ten, the strengths and weaknesses of taking an inexperienced squad into the World Cup Finals, when clergy go bad.

And it occurred to me that social anxieties, inarticulacy, awkwardness, are often dispelled when we travel together. Facing forward, covering distance, and the changing scene, loosen conversation. Think of Carpool Karaoke. Think of Jesus of Nazareth, who used this method a lot, rushing around Galilee, working the crowds, and most memorably for me - appearing to the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection, who did not realise who he was until he opened their minds and their hearts. Message: don鈥檛 try to lock things down, let them emerge at their own pace, on the move, and sit comfortably with the stranger beside you.