Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The skeletons of Beverly Hills

No, I’m not talking about the remains of Luke Perry or Jason Priestly popping out of closets to scare the newbies of West Beverly Hills High – although that would be quite a good storyline. I’m talking about the fact that the majority of the female actors would be hard pressed to find a BMI of over 18 among them. Next to them Jennie Garth, now a high school counsellor, looks positively rubenesque in her size 8 to 10 hips.

I like American trashy series, I have to admit. Although I lean on the more quirky end – towards Gilmore Girls rather than the O.C. – but from the first episode I can’t see anything to hate about the new 90210. But I’m really not sure I’m going to be able to watch it without screaming ‘Argh, she’s so skinny she shouldn’t be allowed on TV, that’s not normal or healthy, can’t anyone see that?’ every five minutes. Somehow I think that would detract from the enjoyment.....

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Revenge and forgiveness

Another Speaking of Faith inspired post I’m afraid. I’ve been suffering from insomnia the last couple of months, so I often lie in bed in the dark, wedged between a ginger cat and a sleeping husband listening to all manner of podcasts until I realise I haven’t heard the last few sentences and it’s time to turn off the ipod. Last night’s programme was about the place of revenge and forgiveness in the fundamental make up of human psychology and society. Examples given on the operation of revenge among Japanese Macaques and the role of revenge in natural selection. Examples of forgiveness against all odds were of the father who lost his daughter in the Oklahoma City bombings visiting the father of the bomber and finding release from the anger and bitterness through compassion for a man who had lost his son. Or of the rising voice of appeals for forgiveness and reconciliation in Uganda in relation to the atrocities carried out by rebel factions.

I do think that revenge is an inherent part of human nature, a natural reaction to any perceived deliberate (and sometimes even accidental) hurt inflicted on oneself or something one cares about. But it also generally doesn’t help anyone, and just perpetuates violence and distress – with the current events in Israel and Palestine being a case in point. All of the major world religions include within their central scriptures the capacity to promote forgiveness – even Islam and Judaism – and yet forgiveness is often seen as a particularly Christian thing, and therefore taboo.

Apparently in Uganda one of the factors behind the call for forgiveness is the sheer exhaustion from the impact of the conflict. Maybe this is also part of what has happened in Northern Ireland. It is hard to keep up the momentum required to sustain anger and revenge when you’re out of energy. So let’s hope the Palestinian and Israeli peoples start suffering from collective insomnia at the atrocities committed in their names, then maybe they’ll be tired enough to forgive.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

She's doing it on the train!

Cried the very cute and very bright 2 year that is sat diagonally opposite me as I make my way to work this morning. This is my new experiment in email blogging. Blogspot allows you to have a unique email address through which you can post to your blog. This is hopefully going to allow me to post a little more regularly as it means I can type out my message on my laptop, press send, and when a log in to my work network it will fly out of my outbox and onto my blog.... well that’s the plan.

 

This morning is cold, cold, cold. Night time temperatures have been hitting around -8 around here and the dusting of snow that fell the previous night is still hanging around. Some of the local kids must have had an extra day off from school yesterday as there was much squealing and chattering emanating from the park up the road where tobogganing was taking place. I was at home, working, trying to keep warm while waiting for our new King size mattress to be delivered. All we need now is the bed frame and we’ll be sleeping in the lap of luxury.... or just comfort with enough room for both cats who have now made their ‘cold war’ truce to enjoy the heat of their two humans overnight.

 

Despite general knackeration and a rather persistent tummy bug on my part we’ve had a good winter break. Did some nice things, saw friends, saw family and spent some time together.... ooh and finally started re-tiling the kitchen (it’s been without tiles for 2 years after hubland got a bit happy with a chisel). It is rather a wrench to go back to work, but I’m determined that this term is going to be different from last term. I’m going to set some boundaries and not get involved with politics or spend my energy worrying about things that aren’t my responsibility. I’ve even drafted an email, but after taking some advice from my lovely boss, I’ve realised that I’m going to have to say it in conversation first..... wish me luck.