Hello everyone. I hope that you are ok. All is well here, all things taken into consideration. I'm typing this, watching Antiques Roadshow, which is about VE Day. Everyone in the programme is, at least 99 years old - for once, that is not an exaggeration - and everyone looks around 65. (That is probably an exaggeration.) I'm not sure what point I am trying to make there - I'm certainly not saying that terrible wars are good for your skin or anything.
We are prepping at work for the VE Celebrations on Thursday. Plymouth is a military city, so it will be a big deal. The Armed Forces are held in very high esteem around here. You have to walk past the local barracks to get to the seafront from my house, and I have never quite got over that you have to pass a gentleman or lady with an enormous gun to get there. They are always very nice and they let on, but still, it's a big gun. They say it's rough up north, but you didn't see many rifles in Bolton. Anyway, I digress. We will be putting a bus on Plymouth Hoe, packed to the brim with details about the services we provide, and our office will be sporting natty rows of Union Jack bunting, giving out Victoria sandwiches and playing a sort of wartime playlist on Spotify. I did spend a fruitless fifteen minutes trying to explain wartime songs to the younger people in the office, but they said it all sounded very depressing (there was a war on!). And, when they saw a clip of the Andrews Sisters singing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B - they asked if that was actually a real thing.
Plymouth suffered badly in the war. There was a week in 1941, when over 6000 bombs were dropped, including on the hospital, hitting the children's and maternity wards. You cannot throw a pebble around here without hitting someone who knows of an extraordinary tale of heroism during the bombings. Sometimes, when I am watching one of these people tell their tales, I wonder if there is a sense of disappointment that, after all that, we seem to have learned almost nothing. Terrible wars rage every day, getting closer, it seems, and we feel helpless. People in power seem to be either crazed megalomaniacs or useless, or both. You could get quite depressed.
I have been reading Meditations for Mortals, a sort of anti-self-help book. It's not a Christian book, although people of faith do get quoted here, but it claims to be a bit of an antidote to trying to do it all. On being overwhelmed, I was interested in two of his points.
One - the news is terrible and always will be, and you can't sort it all. You just can't. (I'm obviously not discounting prayer here, which, if I got round to doing it more often, I would find to be a reliable source of peace and miracles, but I'm not talking about that here as that is a definite work in progress and I think it umberellas everything else I am talking about here. )
You can't spend your life sinking under every horror that you see on 24/7 news. So don't watch it all. Burkeman says he does just 10 minutes a day. That doesn't seem enough to me, but I wonder if my news commitment would be a lot shorter if I didn't insist on reading every article about The Princess of Wales and Manchester United. Answer - definitely. You will live - even if you don't know every event, terrible or otherwise, that takes place. Even Jesus talked about horror and war as if it was inevitable, but he said - Keep your head.
When reports come in of wars and rumoured wars, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history; this is no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation, and ruler will fight ruler. Matthew 24
This is not a call to mass head in the sand, though. Burkeman says the next thing to do is to find and do your thing. Your "make a difference" place or thing, and do it. It could be teaching a Sunday school class (or whatever they call it now). It could be running for Mayor, although not in Plymouth - you'll never beat Darcy Bussell's husband. You could be a top recycler/eco warrior or have stressed Mums round for tea. Honestly, I don't know. I think it needs to be something that you are good at, or could get good at. And I think it needs to be something that you like or could learn to like if you get good at it. It could also change. You could do something for a while, then want to do something else. Just make sure you put down things so you are not committed to eighteen different projects. I think he is saying we should find something that we can do and concentrate on that, and not feel guilty about not putting everything else right. Have a think about it. Have a good week.
I'm OK with acknowledging the sacrifice of so many to bring peace in Europe 80 years ago, as long as we recognise there is not peace in Europe today. I hope all goes well with the activities you are organising.. Back in the 93 I was in a primary school where they were celebrating end of ww1 . A parent had sent in his grandads little songbook from the trenches. The school secretary dutifully made a photocopy for each pupil. A bundle arrived in my class during afternoon play. I flicked through it and realised the language was rather strong, and some songs a little racy. Songbooks were hastily withdrawn before parents complained!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's good to work for Jesus, but one person does not have to do it all, or necessarily do the same job forever.[even a Pope can retire] have a good week.