Remembrance week

For all of those who know me, I am the son of a teacher from a family of teachers. Please if you notice anything wrong about my grammar or punctuation, let me know before mummy sees it.

REMEMBRANCE

This week, the Iron Lady will be laid to rest. She has divided opinions in her life as much as her death. Various commentators have talked about her fight with (and defeat of) the Trade Union Barons, mainly in the Mining and Newspaper industries, her intransigent stance against the IRA, the introduction of the Community Charge, and the difficulties as home owners lost their homes, the very same people she introduces to home ownership.

If I were mean, I would also draw attention to the fact that during her term as Prime Minister was the Kings Cross Disaster, the great storm of 1987, the fire of the Piper Alpha oil Platform, Lockerbie, the Clapham Junction rail disaster, the Hungerford massacre and the Hillsborough disaster. But I am not mean. So I won’t.

In death, she has two top ten chart hits, demonstrations in Trafalgar square, street parties (just like the Queen’s Jubilee) and been called all kinds of names.

I can only remember here as the bullying Spitting Image puppet who made her cabinet members cry, and how at the end of her reign, she became a figure of fun, ridicule and hatred. One thing I am sure of, she would never have been part of a Lib-Tory coalition.

In spite of all that, we are admonished to give respect to all authority 1 Peter 2:13, 1 Timothy 2:2. Tough call.

CORRECTION

In my last blog, I mentioned how a concoction of medication kept me awake. My very own health professional has reliably informed me that Piriton could not have kept me awake. Based on that correction and assertion, I can now confirm that I am an insomniac.

ANGER

I was witness to a road rage incident not too long ago just around the traffic lights where I live. A pizza delivery cyclist, who was quickly making a delivery in 15 minutes or less, scraped his bike against a taxi, and then a W15 bus. Perhaps he had a thing against public transport, I do not know. Anyway, in his confusion, he turned the wrong way down against the flow of traffic, and the next thing you knew, before you could say, Dominoes, pizza was flying everywhere.

The cyclist picked his sorry self up off the floor and started haranguing and insulting both the taxi driver who had gone to park further down the road to examine the scratches on his car, whilst the bus driver had stopped right in the middle in the road bringing Hoe Street to a halt. The visibly shocked passengers on the bus started to get disgruntled and started to complain to the driver, the police and ambulance service arrived and within minutes, the junction was turned into a centre of mass confusion. All on account of one motor cyclist.

What really got to me was the contorted, angry expressions on the faces of all involved. The question I asked at that point is that why is there so much anger in the world? Has it always been this way? Are we always so stressed out that all we need is one little thing to tip us over the edge? Are we so on edge that we are looking for an excuse to relieve our anger and tension?

What happened to Proverbs 15:1? A soft answer turns away wrath? Matthew 5:9? Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God?

AND FINALLY…

A young lady I know was in a state of confusion as to which direction was “right”. As she got more and more flustered, she got a bright idea. Facing the sign that clearly pointed to the right, she hit herself on the forehead in an Eureka moment, turned around so that the sign was behind her and triumphantly announced, “This is my RIGHT hand”. Only problem was that she was holding up her left hand. It happens to us all at some point in our lives, I suppose.