For my weekly writing spot on this site, see the One-Minute Mystic, with a new meditation posted every Monday. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode earlier this year.       There are two great Sunday institutions in Britain – the Christian Church and the News of the World. Some would say that both trade in fantasy – but one's much better with the grainy photos. NOTW has recently exposed – in "lurid detail" as we say on the radio news – the fantasies of two sporting celebrities. First, they showed pictures of Paul Jewell, the manager of Derby County, in a home movie which he will find difficult to explain both to his wife and his team. From here on, expect every Derby defeat to be described as a "spanking" – or worse. And then the following week, Max Moseley – son of Oswald – was found to spend his Friday afternoons some way from his "Head of Formula 1" desk. Defending himself from "Nazi pervert" allegations, he said that he only shouted in German because several of the prostitutes involved were from that country. Fair enough, I suppose – every little helps when you're in a strange land; and getting hit. Does any of this matter? Is Paul Jewell less of a football manager for both having, and wanting to film, his sexual fantasies? Will it affect his tactical nous when a goal down, and half an hour to play? And is Max Moseley less able to handle the huge commercial enterprise that is Formula 1, because he likes to act out various painful forms of sexual gratification? I remember debate many years ago when the revered American preacher A.W. Tozer, was found to have "lurid details" of his own. Did this suddenly invalidate all the books of his sermons, which people had found so uplifting for years? The church, like Stalin, tends to ease such people from history; other books of sermons quietly appear. Of course, we are all fantasists – unable to cope either with who we are, or how things are. Our circumstances bring out the "if only" in us all, and we get thinking. Some fantasise about opening the batting for England; others, about having a partner. Some dream of the "We want you to be a bishop" letter, and others, of collecting the Man Booker prize. Some fantasise about saving the world, and others, of adulation from significant folk. Our fantasies are too humorous to mention, entirely mad – and generally, of course, entirely hidden. But what if they were made flesh? What if we filmed our imagined opening address as a bishop, with a fake audience; or captured on camera ourselves with a pretend partner; or arranged for some actors to send us cards, and tell us how good we were. We'd feel stupid – but would we be any less authentic than we were before? For Paul and Max, it's now the "elephant in the room" factor. Whatever they do professionally, it'll be there – the great unmentioned. Though in my experience, there are so many elephants in so many rooms – a couple more will hardly worsen the air quality. More writings © Simon Parke