Trick or treat (or how to run a protection racket...)

Its that time of year again...

(I think one of the best blogs about the religious/pagan implications of Halloween is this one, however I want to focus on trick or treating)

I can remember... (oh dear I’m slipping into old phogey mode here), I mean, when I was a kid (no, that’s just as bad), oh just get on with it....

Growing up in the Uk Halloween wasn’t really a big deal. Today you can’t go into the supermarkets without tripping over costumes and mask, all so the little “dears” can go and pretend to be gangsters, Yes thats right, they little “dears” can go and run a parent sanctioned protection racket. “Give us a treat (sweets/money/etc) or will put eggs through your letterbox/window/etc”

I don’t really care that kids want to dress up, I don’t really care that people give them sweets. What bothers me is that society is telling kids that the threat of violence is profitable.

(On my old blog I did point out that if you were into winter climbing, this is the perfect time to get your gear out and prep them for the coming season. Somehow kids don’t stay at the door for a long time if you answer it holding a file in one hand and an ice axe in the other...)

At the Docs...

I saw the doctor yesterday for my monthly check up... not a lot to report as everybody seems to be waiting for me to see the specialist. I'm seeing him in two weeks time, only almost 3 months after being referred! To be honest I’m feeling quite good at the moment. i still have difficulty sleeping and I get tired out easily, but at least I’m not getting really bad headaches or dizzy spells at the moment (hence the inane blogging...)...

Fingers crossed I’m starting to get a bit better...

Preaching...

Yesterday’s SWOTD reminded me that I’ll be preaching (assuming I’m well enough) in Edinburgh on 8th December.

Its almost a year after I last preached (although thats not actually true as I led out in worships/devotionals at the camp in summer) and its strange to think that I used to do this every week.

Funnily enough it was actually easier to prepare for when I was preparing a sermon almost weekly than it is annually! I must have used every approach- I went from preaching from a complete text (actually quite useful as I printed out a copy in font 16 for a deaf member!) to using notes to keywords (once a member couldn’t believe the piece of paper he found in the pulpit with 6 words on it were my sermon notes...).

I think the secret was the fact that I used to live with the text for a week. I’d be reading it on saturday and sunday after church, then after a day off on Monday i’d be back with it. I’d read around it, I’d ask questions of it, I’d look for answers, during the week my visits and bible studies would impact on it and by the time i got to look at other book/commentaries by the end of the week I would normally have a handle on it. Thursday it would be coming together and usually by friday it was there...

Now without that routine I’m kinda lost! I have a title though (but I find that I forget my ideas as they are spread out over weeks not days!) so if you’re in the area hopefully I’ll have “beginnings and endings” ready by December!

Swedish Word of the day...

Listening to Swedish radio yesterday I understood (guessed) that they were trying to give out an email address.

So today's SWOTD is snabel or "@" (or trunk!).

Swedish Word of the day...

Katarina was reading a book over breakfast yesterday, when I asked what the title meant I was told to look it up. which I did...

So today's SWOTD is predikanten or the preacher.

Swedish Word of the day...

I had to go to B&Q to get a few things to finish off the skirting boards... I had to stop and ask what one of the items was on the list though...

So today's SWOTD is spik or nail(s)

Swedish Word of the day...

I was browsing the website of a climbing club in Sweden and came across the word for guide (or topo). As I hope to do a bit of climbing there one day I'd better start learning the word.

So today's SWOTD is förare or guide

Swedish Word of the day...

(As some of you may know, in order not to die of boredom, and for future practical, and present personal reasons-wow I really murdered the English language there- I'm trying to learn Swedish... So when I find a new word thats interesting, or if I just feel like I need to be reminded, I'll post it up here)

On sunday we went for a short walk along the cliffs near here, we noticed that the ferns/bracken were starting to go brown and die off... so today's SWOTD is ormbunke or fern

Reality Check (update)

Thanks again to all those who commented on the last post- I do appreciate it!

I thought I’d let you know how I am at the moment.

I am better- I don’t get headaches as often and I can walk/be active for a bit longer before I get tired out. Also I recover quicker- It doesn’t take me days to get back after some exertion.

I still get bad days- this week I was quite tired and useless around the house for a few days and this morning I feel rather bad- I haven’t slept well for the past few days and this morning I feel tired- both physically and mentally.

I’m also bored as there is not a lot for me to do to keep occupied... I’m trying to get back into reading as I can concentrate a bit more. I’m also trying to up the pace on my language course... I want to have made noticeable progress by Christmas...

oh well, thanks for listening...

The Noble Peace Prize (or... why didn’t they complain last year?)

I read on several sites/papers/blogs that the IPCC & Al Gore don’t deserve the this year’s prize. Whilst I disagree with those who doubt climate change- I believe the science is mostly sound, I can understand why people might be asking why the “peace” prize...

But where were they last year when the same prize was won by an economist (Muhammad Yunus) and a bank (Grameen) in Bangladesh “for advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor, especially women, through their pioneering microcredit work”.

So why didn’t they complain that this wasn’t a “peace” prize but an “economic” one?

I think that many either have an axe to grind against either Al Gore or climate change itself, or simply don’t share the Noble committee’s wider understanding of peace.

Peace is not just the absence of violence or conflict, it is also the presence of justice and rights, and dare I say it, an environment to live in too...

(incidentally the 2004 winner, the kenyan Wangari Maathai was an environmental activist before a political one and her prize was partly for her contribution to “sustainable development”)

Another Wrongful Execution?

A story in todays Guardian argues that Dr Crippenmight not have been guilty of the murder he was charged with. It appears that recent DNA tests show the body which was found was not his wife’s...

Anglocentric viewpoints...

I saw this story about an Alzheimer's blood test on the BBC yesterday. It claims the research is based at Stanford University in the US.

However, listening to Swedish Radio's English broadcast yesterday I heard that the research was a collaboration between 3 universities- an institute at the University of Göteborg, Malmö and Stanford... 2 Swedish Universities and one US...

Strange how that wasn't mentioned on the BBC!

Former Chief of Defence's & Defence Civl Servent's take on the "Just War"

Max Hastings has a good column in todays Guardian about Lord Charles Guthrie and Sir Michael Quinlan' book on the Christian Just War principle

Although not entirely happy with the theory (I side more the non-violent civil disobedience/pacifist view... most of the time- I'm complex, aren't we all?), It was one I used in sermons in the run up to the Gulf war as it had a history and was understood by members. As this column mentions, even on these criteria the current Gulf folly failed to find merit.

40 years ago...

Seeing as its 40 years since Che was killed in Bolivia, I thought I'd repost the story (from my old blog) of the Seventh-day Adventist minister who saved his life when the Cuban revolution started...

In the darkness before dawn on November 25, 1956 82 men, along with their equipment, crowded onto the 60ft yacht Granma and left Mexico for Cuba.

The voyage was an unmitigated disaster! The boat was originally designed to hold 12 people and the journey took 7 days instead of 5 (which meant that the diversionary attack in Santiago had been and gone- along with their reception party of men and trucks, and of course Batista had now put his troops on full alert...), and their arrival in Cuba was more of a shipwreck than a landing (trying to find the Cabo Cruz lighthouse their navigator fell overboard, they used up the valuable darkness trying to rescue him, then when they headed for land they crashed into a sandbank)! And of course, they'd been spotted and so when the reels waded ashore (having abandoned most of their equipment on the sinking ship) and managed to eventually regroup (which took 2 days!) they were ambushed (it didn't help that their guide went straight to the nearest soldiers to report their position). In the ensuing melee Che was shot in the neck and the Castro brothers ordered a retreat; fortunately the wound was only superficial, however when they finally managed to regroup, only 22 of the original group were left alive.

Che ended up in a group of five with only a litre of water and a tin of milk. Over the next days they tried to evade the army and survive- before long they had spilled the milk and were desperately trying to share the water! A week after the ambush they found a peasant's hut and were about to go in when they heard a military toast coming from inside! They ran away, and the next day, by now tired, exhausted, and fearing that the rest of their colleagues (including Fidel) were dead they decided to knock on a farmers door and take their chances.

It turned out that the owner was a Seventh-day Adventist pastor and they were received warmly. Even more good luck awaited them. The pastor was a member of Fidel's July 26 movement and so was able to connect them back into the revolutionary network (in fact the next day church members started showing up bringing more news of the rebels and their whereabouts)! Sadly Che and his colleagues weren't such good guests: having eaten nothing for more than a week, all the food they'd kindly received had the effect that ‚"the little house that sheltered us turned into an inferno. Almeida was the first to be overcome by diarrhea; and in a flash, eight unappreciative intestines gave evidence of the blackest ingratitude."

The network of church members/July 26 managed to reunite Che with the Fidel and the rest of the revolutionaries and the rest is history.

So, lets all raise a glass of Che's beloved Mate, and light up a habanos, to the unnamed pastor who saved his life.

(from John Lee Anderson's Biog)

Update

Thanks to all those who stopped by and commented on my last post. Thanks for the encouragement. I just thought I'd let you know that the last week has been a better one for me- I'm not feeling so bad and am able to be a little more active... hopefully things will stay that way...