Where Are Your Scales?
Ministerial Meandering
Where are your scales?
Do not be alarmed - I am not asking if you have suddenly developed fins or have a particularly debilitating dermatitis - rather enquiring into where your centre of balance might be, between the positive and the negative.
The bird in my bedroom, which begins to chirp as soon as one eye is open, and ceases not until after I have closed both of mine at the end of the day, is an endless source of information. A large proportion of this is shared (whether I like it or not) over the breakfast table - to the extent that this morning I didn’t even reach for my Economist, as to interrupt the stream would have seemed churlish.
Within the deluge of world affairs that threatened to swamp my bacon, were items which had sparks of goodness and positivity about them. These were such a change from the quotidian reflux of malignant acid indigestion engendered by what has become a repetitive diatribe on American politics.
But let me not get too euphoric too soon; there was also a ‘human interest’ story about a couple in Ohio who were visited by the police because the ‘man of the house’ had been arrested for exposing himself in public. When the police arrived at the house they found the man (35) and his wife (32) and their 16 children, aged from 18 years to 18 months, living in abject poverty - with his parents. None of the children had been schooled, and some were incapable of communicating. The couple had married when he was 18 and she, 15, - with their parents consent. They had left school around the age of 13 or 14, and their first child appeared two months after their wedding. After that there were yearly pregnancies and babies, with the odd dose of twins from time to time. It would be hard to calculate the collective IQ of the entire family, but one might be optimistic to put it into three figures in total. How does such a family escape the notice of social services?
The happy items start with a dog. Where else? A rescue dog, having only been with his third owner for about two months, saved him from a fire that destroyed his house and would have killed him. The dog, Hazel, bit her owner awake, and the two of them managed to escape with only smoke inhalation and no burns. I suspect that third owner will be holding on to his saviour companion.
The other happy thing was the reporting of Kate (Prince William’s wife) completing the Three Peaks Challenge in Britain. That is to climb all three peaks - Snowdon, Ben Nevis, and Scafell Pike, in less than 24 hours. As many of you will know, Kate (Catherine, Princess of Wales) had surgery and chemotherapy for some form of abdominal cancer a couple of years ago. She completed this challenge to show that there ‘was life beyond diagnosis’, and raised money doing so for the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, which is the premier cancer hospital in the UK.
The final ‘happy thing’ which is happening today is that Sheila and I are going ‘out for tea’ with a couple from our church this afternoon. This a Good Thing to do on my Day Off.
Where are your scales set today? Mine are definitely positive.
Philip+