A good rant - is good for you!

Sunday 6th September, 2020

I keep on being told by a spiritual writer living in California to avoid the duality by which most of us live and judge. No black or white, right or wrong, them or us, moral or immoral....that is all man's categorising and analysing. We are in to life as it is...not as we compartmentalise it. My morality is not his morality, my justice is not the absolute. Obviously I am putting it badly because we do have to say yes or no, we do have to judge whether something is a good idea or not but I take the point that life is life. The old adage that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter is more the point.

Well today was as it was...I will let you judge it.

I woke to sunshine. (California would hate that and prefer rain)

I streamed Mass from Ireland and an excellent sermon on the damage of ' the kiss and tell' mentality, the Internet exposure environment, the gossip and judgementalism of the culture today. ( Some of course long for their five minutes of fame and others long to hide their nefarious deeds).

I decided to go in to town to buy a railway ticket. I found my car mirror smashed again, now it is probably illegal. I bought the ticket and listened to all the rules re booking a seat, face covering, distancing on the train etc. Then the LNER train vouchers I had (repayment for delayed trains in the past) did not work on the ticket office's computer so I had to pay in full...LNER owe me £53.30p. I have now written to them and posted my disappointment!

I had some soured milk so I baked soda bread. I ate two slices with huge dollops of hummus. The bread was delicious but I could have enjoyed just one slice.

I went for a walk and sat by a local park's lake. A lady came along and I asked if she knew what had happened to the fourth swan cygnet that had been there last week. "Gone. There were 6 at the beginning and slowly they have been reduced to 3. Maybe a rat, an otter that was seen last week. Whatever the 3 have fed other animals. Dog eat dog ", she said.

I walked back and discovered a friend had dropped off some of my favourite chorizo sausages. Later she returned and dropped off strawberries.

I have read some McCall Smith this afternoon and watched a terrifying documentary on surveillance in modern Britain. 'Terrifying' as it seems THEY have masses of information and personal data on all of us or can gather it if they wish. Orwell's 1984 came to mind but writ very large indeed.

It is early evening. I have looked to my emails as I have one friend in a hospice dying of cancer and another in a Care Home on the point of death from a slowing heart. I also wish to check on others for whom I am much concerned who are ill from my brother to a friend's granddaughter to a chum in Texas. Also I love hearing from friends generally and I am trying to organise a semi holiday...so exciting in the 'new normal' which demands train Covid rules and where travel seems fraught with 'what ifs...'!

That is my day.....good or bad, moral or immoral, black or white? No, just what happened. I have reacted in my way and others would have reacted in their ways. We are who we are and it is as it is....no duality? Yet the person who caused my mirror destruction did not leave a note....immoral and wrong? My eating of two slices of bread was greed....wrong? Surveillance as I witnessed in the documentary seemed intrusive and a denial of privacy.....yet other might say it is vital. The LNER vouchers did not work on the machine at the station.....infuriating or just a fault? Do I have a justified claim against them for trauma or whatever?

I could almost open everything in my day to analysis. A silly thought because it is as it is and we just live. Yet I had a negative thought....I am thrilled there is a wonderful hospice for my cancer ridden friend...yet why is the whole world not as well cared for medically as we are in Britain?

I can hear a friend say 'shut up, you fool, just get on with it and do what you can for whom you can when you can'. Yup.....