'Those were the days my friend...'

Although a technophobe I have come to realise, as with all things, there is a valuable and positive side to technology. The world of my iPad leading to the Internet, cyber space and many such applications thereby has a very good side.

Although misinformation, slander, falsehoods, child pornography, hacking are part of the dark side of the web (I am not sure of the correct terminology) the good side is obvious also: communication, access, knowledge, interconnectedness, speed of transmission to all corners of the world and more.

I am relishing emails from friends, current news updates, lectures, concerts, ballets, films and a multitude of other programmes. 

Once again this lock down period is making me conscious of my prejudices and failings and my adopted stubborn attitudes. It is attitudes which have caught my interest this morning.

I need an attitude of hope.

I need an approach of taking advantage of the lock down situation.

I am learning to relish the silence, the aloneness, the opportunity to read, to research and explore ideas and knowledge.

I realise it is I, myself, who determine my attitude and approach as well as my action.

They are not imposed. 

This morning a friend's email had attached a video of President Obama and President Trump: clips of the former delivering the news of the death of Osama bin Laden, the latter the death of Al Baghdadi.

What a different approach and attitude they displayed one from the other.

My friend noted "this is what things were like". Immediately came into my mind the refrain of a pop song of the 1960s or was it the 1970s. "Those were the days, my friend, we thought they would never end, we'd sit and dance for ever and again"...

Here and now I can state categorically that those days have ended.

Some would argue they were better days, some that they were not...as ever good and not so good aspects. 

Each day is new.

Each day there is a difference, a change however small.

Yet there are some things that are enduring if in different guises and shapes.

Do we not have, for example, the saying: 'hope springs eternal?'

So it is attitudes, principles which endure and which shape what the present moment means to us and how we use it.

Another friend this morning sent a quotation from Pope Francis which I will feed in to my attitude to life:

"Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature.

We are born to help each other.

No matter how difficult it is...

Life is good when we are happy; but much better when others are happy because of you."

#popefrancis #thosewerethedays #obama #trump #hopespringseternal #hope #memories