SOAPBOX
I'VE NEVER BEEN KNOWN NOT TO FORM AN OPINION AND WHAT'S THE POINT IN HAVING ONE IF YOU'RE NOT WILLING TO SHARE IT?
-
JUNK MAIL
“No Junk Mail” – Probably the three most ignored words in any language. No matter how often I’ve tried to get this message across I seem to fail. Increasing numbers of leaflet droppers are choosing to completely ignore the helpful signs I put up especially for them. Given the fact most of them seem to be wandering from door to door with headphones in and music torturing their ears while their feet get a pounding, maybe it’s a case of twisted synaesthesia? They can’t read the signs because their ears are busy?
-
TIME
“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.” -Nelson Mandela. It’s totally subjective I know but in my opinion I think you have to pass the point where you know for a fact you don’t have as many years ahead of you as you have behind you before you really understand time. Like I said its a subjective viewpoint. However, from my experience, we spend so much time getting things out of the way so we can get on with our lives that we don’t realise those things are part of our life too. It’s no coincidence we use the phrase ” spending time” because it is a precious commodity we can only spend and never save up for later. So now that we have a life maybe…
-
BROKEN
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Frederick Douglass- It’s a wonder humanity ever became the dominant species on planet Earth when you think about how fragile we really are. Quite apart from the physical fragility we display in comparison to other creatures, the effect mental damage can have on us should really make us much less capable of rising to the top of the food chain. A throw-away remark or the stigma of an exposed weakness can be devastating. One of the things I admire most about the current generation of parents is their ability to instil in today’s children a healthy level of self-worth. Douglass was right of course and building strong children should be the purpose of parenthood, a point sadly missed by previous generations I think.
-
BEFORE / AFTER
“In many ways, history is marked as ‘before’ and ‘after’ Rosa Parks. She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the walls of segregation came down.” Jesse Jackson.- Have you ever noticed how people are always smiling in the ‘after’ photo for makeovers? Maybe if they smiled in the ‘before’ photo they wouldn’t need the makeover. Just a thought. On a more serious note, Jesse Jackson’s quote reminded me of how difficult it is to imagine the world before a life changing event. It’s very easy to think things were always as good as they are now or that people have always had certain basic rights. Anti-slavery laws in the US were only passed less than 100 years before I was born.
-
A CERTAIN LACK OF LOGIC
There are many things about life that confuse me and most of them will continue to do so, but maybe someone could shed some light on something that I can’t get my head around – how come animal shelters are overloaded with abandoned dogs and cats and yet they refuse to allow people working full-time to adopt the animals? They also insist on visiting your home and passing judgement on the adoptees living quarters. They obviously want to make sure the poor unfortunate animal fairs better with you than it did with its previous ‘owner’ and that in itself is understandable, but the vetting is a bit OTT. It’s especially illogical since if you put your hand in your pocket and go to a breeder or even a private citizen selling pups on a website like eBay or donedeal,…
-
ENJOY!
I was lucky enough to have been on holiday in Florida in the early noughties when every shop assistant, waitress and person you met finished every interaction with a chirpy “have a nice day!”. When I say lucky I’m referring to the holiday and not the chirpy instruction as to how I view the rest of my day. Honestly it’s nothing more than one of those personal things that mildly irritate me but here we are in the twenteens and it appears fast food vendors have replaced the “have a nice day” with an emphatic “enjoy!”. I find the latest saccharin instruction unnecessary. What the hell happened to a simple “thank you”?
-
WHAT VALUE DOES A LIFE HAVE?
Sometimes I try to think of ways not to sound like I’m delivering another lecture when I write a piece about something I’m passionate about, but on this occasion I’m going to forego that and just say what’s on my mind. Life is precious and I don’t imagine many people would disagree with that statement but hidden within those three words is a world wide open to assumption and confusion. For instance, do we value all life? Or just maybe human life? Or do we extend that to human and animal life? Whatever parameters we place on our definition of life at least we all agree it is valuable. Value, however, is subjective. Let me put this in context. We sadly had to have our German Shepherd Dog put “to sleep” this week because he was old…
-
DOGGED DISCRIMINATION
If I was to blog about a notice erected by a Local Authority in Ireland indicating that the amenity they set up with public funds was off limits to people of certain nationalities – lets say German, Zimbabwean, American, English, or Japanese – because the ignorance of received wisdom indicated they were more agressive than other nationalities and especially the indigenous population, there would be an outcry and jobs would be lost. Only right I hear you say (sometimes it’s amazing how I hear your voice in my head dear reader), discrimination is repugnant and should be eradicated. Does this sign exist? Technically yes, but not in reference to humans. The sign refers to certain breeds of dog. Now before you click that button or tap that screen and move on thinking ‘crank’ (there I go again…
-
SHOUT LOUDER THE TV CAN’T HEAR YOU
What is it about sport on TV that turns even the most mild mannered person into an aggressive expert who could singlehandedly replace every team member AND coach them from the sideline? As I write this my Ban Cheile is roaring “Oh you stupid, stupid…” at a player on a pitch miles away and in the full knowledge that only the TV can actually hear her (and me – although I’m upstairs cowering in the bedroom) and the offending ‘stupid’ sportsman is oblivious to her disapproval. I suppose in the interest of openness I should declare that I am one of those males who, much to the surprise of everyone who discovers it, cannot stand sport of any persuasion. I don’t necessarily try to make out there is anything inherently bad about it, just that I don’t…
-
POCKET EUROPE
I reckon everyone has a little personal ritual when it comes to emptying their pockets, especilly if you’re doing it just before you go to bed. I usually put my battered wallet on the bedside locker first and then my mobile phone and then scoop any change from my pocket and toss it into an old ashtray that’s a relic from my parents home (I don’t smoke and I can’t remember how it got there, but it’s been there for years now). That done I sometimes separate the 1 and 2 euro coins from the rest and toss the small stuff into some other receptacle – at the moment it’s a silicone phone cover that has been decomissioned – because those coins will find their way into a jar and be given to charity or the grandkids…
