I think it was Michael Ramsey, who was Archbishop of Canterbury when that title meant something, who talked about his hopes for eternity and said that he was glad to read in the Bible that there were windows in heaven because he was good at looking out of the window and not very good at praying.

Looking out of the window seems a very profitable way of passing time, although not as good as sitting on a bench overlooking a river or the sea. A lady in her mid-nineties once …