Interesting times

This is sometimes said to be both a Chinese curse or a blessing.. may you live in Interesting Times.. personally I am inclined to think it is better to live in interesting times.
It has been an interesting week.
A funeral of a friend who died quite quickly.
I was called to bless a dog that was going to be put down.
Australia is besotted by the centenary of ANZAC at Gallipoli.
The Dr told me my "blood" was OK but I have a B12 deficiency (reading the Wiki entry it seems to describe me to a T)
I have been reading The Narrow Road to the Deep North  a very good book to read in this ANZAC week  (read Thom Keneally's review here)
I attended one of the many Parish Nomination Committee meetings [I have become  a "professional Diocesan nominator"...and the level of vacancy makes it rather taxing... I take this role very seriously, and I am glad that His Grace seem to do so also] The church is changing, morphing, declining, growing....those things may seem contradictory...but church is rather like that

Interesting times!
In the meantime...I live with an interesting person (my daughter!....lest you forget!) , I married my niece. I visited a jail. And greatest of joys...I went to fix my daughter's shower....and was able to hold the most precious member of our family in my arms. I like that better than anything else (even better than the sound of my own voice!)

Interesting times! Interesting times?
A curse, but most likely,
a blessing

What are the poor people doing...?

I have a very good dentist (see here) but I've seen him 3 times in the last fortnight. The last time today...and my teeth feel great.
Now we are fortunate to have Extras Cover (at a cost) and I've still shelled out over $1000 excess in this short space of time.
It is (of course) worth it...but what do the poor people do?

Military Spending

I have been trying to think of something to say about the recent announcement of massive increase in spending for the military. It is difficult to be dispassionate about this, few people are prepared to argue against big military budgets.

But I was reflecting  that it took a while for people to begin to question whether the "stimulus strategy" was the appropriate way to deal with the current economic dilemma. ie. is giving people more money to spend and encouragement to spend it an appropriate strategy to solve a problem that is allegedly brought about   by people overspending!

Is spending more money on military might the best  strategy to end the warring madness of the world?

The dogma that "The price of peace is eternal vigilance" is so unquestioned that it stands more as a testament to our paranoia than our political astuteness.

We think that unless we have a big gun to frighten (probably) the Chinese that they will be down upon us. 

But I would wish to note that I don't see the Chinese queuing up to rape New Zealand, which has adopted a much less strident military policy than our own.

My great sadness is the inordinate amount of money that military equipment, (everything now measured in millions and billions) is glossed over so easily. Yet when we talk about education, health, refugees, third world aid and so on every single drop has to be squeezed out.

(POST 995)

More resolutions

Following on from the resolutions blog the other day. One of the ten or so positive resolutions was to to talk 'health' rather than 'sickness'.
I think this is quite a good insight. As a person whose job requires much inane conversation just to pass the time of day, I realised many years ago that when people ask you "How are you?"they don't really want you to tell them.
In fact the redoubtable A. Musgrave Horner, my one time lecturer in Speech and Drama, hated this and would say if asked this inane question "I am EXTRAOOOOOORDINARILY well!" In a voice that would boom three blocks. You tended to never ask him again!
However I did think that talking of health rather than sickness does not just refer to disease, it is an attitude about how life is going. So we can choose to play it up or play it down .
Treasurers (in parish, club or nation) often have to address the sickness in order to be honest. They also need to recognise it is not only about sickness, but about how health might be achieved. And, indeed, health probably cannot be achieved if only the sickness framework is addressed.
It is about perspecvtive, and should easily be recognised as a good resolution...to talk health rather than sickness .

Same, same but different

There are lots of candidates for catchy - but cliched - titles for blogs about the change in Liberal leadership.
Methinks he protests too much is one. His need to convince the legendary 'battlers' that he is not a 'silver tail' was obviously uppermost in some strategists minds. I don't think he was very convincing but time will tell.
Turn Bull into reality could be another one. Again we will wait and see.

Should we worry too much that he is rich? In one way this is a sign that this is a man who knows how to achieve, and surely we want successful people in key leadership positions.
Any way I suspect in six weeks all this will be academic, he will either be chewing it up or stuffing it up. I suspect the former, and the personal critique will then all be a bit beside the point.
Certainly will be interesting
Personally, I was in agreement with Turnbull, that it was disappointing to see that the one of the first comments the PM made was that the Republic would now be a key issue.
This is such a political ploy, aimed at agitating the Liberal Party from within, about what is essentially a minor issue.
For heaven's sake a strong opposition is a good thing(here for example). On the other hand it was good to see an encouragement from Rudd to identify key bi-partisan issues. As these troubled times go on it is clear that there are more and more issues that are just important and not just or substantially political.
I could and would name the River, education, the intervention, the War and health as just some. of these

Medical science

 I have been saying for some time that the difference between being in your 50s rather than your 40s is that you go to the Dr and you don't expect to be cured.  You are "managed" in your decline.I am in the middle of such a process. My haemoglobin levels are slowly declining and the cause is not immediately apparent.
Good on Dr Dave for persisting with me every six weeks or so for 30 mins (I was the first appointment and made him run late so early in the day). There are spectres that loom. Veiled references in conversation....if we don't find anything, don't imagine there is anything sinister (he said)....but then he doesn't say anything more and there is a sense that you feel he chose not to. Nothing sinister though.