Hello God

A friend sent me this. It must beong to somebody, but who ? If you let me know, I will happily ascribe it to its author.

Anyway, I like it a lot, though I have no reliable religious belief system at all.

Hope you like it, too.



Hey God.

Hello.....

I'm falling apart. Can you put me back together?

I would rather not.

Why?

Because you aren't a puzzle.

What about all of the pieces of my life that are falling down onto the ground?

Let them stay there for a while. They fell off for a reason. Take some time and decide if you need any of those pieces back.

You don't understand! I'm breaking down!

No - you don't understand. You are breaking through. What you are feeling are just growing pains. You are shedding the things and the people in your life that are holding you back. You aren't falling apart. You are falling into place. Relax. Take some deep breaths and allow those things you don't need anymore to fall off of you. Quit holding onto the pieces that don't fit you anymore. Let them fall off. Let them go.

Once I start doing that, what will be left of me?

Only the very best pieces of you.

 I'm scared of changing.

I keep telling you - YOU AREN'T CHANGING!! YOU ARE BECOMING!

Becoming who?

Becoming who I created you to be! A person of light and love and charity and hope and courage and joy and mercy and grace and compassion. I made you for more than the shallow pieces you have decided to adorn yourself with that you cling to with such greed and fear. Let those things fall off of you. I love you! Don't change! Become! Become! Become! Become who I made you to be. I'm going to keep telling you this until you remember it.

There goes another piece.

Yep. Let it be.

So...I'm not broken?

No - but you are breaking like the dawn. It's a new day. Become!! Become!!

So what is this thing exactly ?

You know what ?

I have no idea what this thing is, or what to call it. My son who lives in Boulder challenged me to try to make it yesterday. He knows we are locked-down and thought I might need something fun to do. He was right.

The top and the bottom are joined only by wool. String would have been better, but I couldn't find any. The top almost hovers.

The only thing I can say is that this thing ought not to work. It ought not to be possible to put binoculars (or whatever) on it wothout making it collapse.

Instead, it wavers tremulously but does not buckle. It's weird.

Whaever it is, it was good fun to try to figure out how it works and how to make it.

Gone but not forgotten

This morning, we all wake up to the kind of government Orwell had nightmares about.

Across the planet there are two simultaneous infections raging, one very publicly, one covert but already well-established.

The first is the corona virus, the second is the rash of right-wing governments. It’s hard to say which will prove the more dangerous in the long run.

Here, in the UK, we have new government powers in a 300-page piece of legislation which details the draconian measures it needs to address the pandemic.

It makes you wonder how long this suite of measures has been on the stocks. It seems unlikely that the legislation has been drafted over the last fortnight. More likely that the pandemic has presented an opportunity to curtail civil liberties in a way that delights the hearts of the right-wing demagogues.

The government wished to review the legislation after two years, but agreed in the end to six-monthly reviews.

In the last decade, civil rights have been largely trashed. Rights that took years to achieve.

It feels crazily optimistic to think that the rights snatched away by the latest legislation will be given back without a fight when the storm of the pandemic has eased.

Civil rights and individual choice are so easily trampled.

For evil to triumph, it is sufficient that good men do nothing.

Light relief

Fanlight

This piece of glass is a fanlight for a room in a 1912 block of apartments. It had to be simple, still, and fit in with the feel of the place.

Colours and textures were chosen by the apartment-dwellers.

You're right. It isn't so much a fanlight as a transom. Fanlights tended to be shaped like, well, like fans. But nowadays anything above a door masquerades as a fanlight.

Fun to do, and I managed to finish it before the virus locked us down here. And here it is in place.

Gaslighting

We are all panic buying.

The supermarkets, the government, the press are all agreed. We are panic buying.

Faced with a lengthy lock-down, imposed and reinforced by the government, people are thinking ahead and trying to make sure that they and their families have provisions for the future.

Isn't this what the wise virgins did ? Or the meaning of Potiphar's dream about the fat cows and thin cows ?

Making provision for the future is what people are usually expected to do, if they want to be seen as responsible. Now, in the face of very real shortages, and with little confidence in the government's ability to shape the future, making that provision is seen as panic buying.

What's the other side of the story ? There are always two-sides, but only one grabs the megaphone.

The stores depend on just-in-time deliveries. This works fine when deliveries are carefully calculated to match the rhythms of normal life and the pulse of shopping activity. But in the current global pandemic, shopping habits changed more quickly that the supermarkets' algorithms. Result ? The supply chains failed because the supermarkets were slow to act, and did not spot the intensity of the impact of the virus.

Since Wuhan, the potential impact has been pretty clear, but the supply chains did not react.

It's a cardinal rule. When something goes wrong, find someone to blame. And of course, it is they public who are blame. They are not being suitably cautious and fore-sighted. They are panic buying.

Gaslighting.

Supermarket sweep

Well, here we are.

The virus is raging and the supermarkets are keen to help.

Sainsbury's big plan is to have heath service staff in the store for the first half hour of the day, followed by the elderly and infirm for an hour, folowed by the hordes for the rest of the day.

But wait. Have I heard right ?

From what we know so far NHS workers are very likely to be in daily contact with Co-vid19, and they have inadequate protective equipment. So they go in the store, picking things up, putting things back, holding tight to trolleys and baskets. Maybe a light sneeze here and there.

Who do we let in next ? The most vulnerable group. Most vulnerable in the sense that they are most likely to die if they contract the dreaded virus.

They go in the store, picking things up, putting things back, holding tight to trolleys and baskets. Maybe a light sneeze here and there.

 Does this make any sense at all ?

Menawhile, in Colorado, my son goes to the store with his family. The store let in very small numbers, and the queue otuside is orderly and well-spaced. Once in the store, the trolley is wiped down by staff, and the customer is asked to clean his/ her hands with disinfectant wipes provided.

At the checkout, there is a single line, again, well-spaced, and people queue with no jostling.

As one customer leaves, another is admitted.

Too sensible for here ?