A Great Idea

 

Internal view of  Newcastle University Spire

It's what people at Newcastle Cathedral are doing as described on this mornings on Radio 4's Sunday Worship .  It's called The Lantern Project, part of what 'the Recovery Church'.

Vulnerable and isolated people put themselves forward to receive a team of people around them.  This means that they always know that they have people who are prepared to help them get through a difficult time.

It reminded me of the work described by Pat, Ellie Button's aunt, who after the Hillsborough Disaster, was part of a similar initiative giving everyone affected by Hillsborough someone who was trained to support them.

I wondered whether Leicester has such an initiative?

These are the principles I think would be important.

Avoid the word 'support'.  It is like 'charity', where the power lies with the giver. Better for me is the term 'network of friend'.

Let us identify five people (fits with fingers on the hand) who will be clear about what they offer and receive.  The relationship will be reciprocal.

The definition of the relationship is defined by a number of parameters.

1) How long is the commitment (6 months, one year, 6  years, forever)?

2) Times and dates when contact is made (informal, once a day, once a week, once a fortnight etc).

3) What is ok to discuss (money, relationships, addictions, hobbies, faith, housing etc)?

4) If there is a request for the relationship to end, how long is the cooling down period?

5) Who is in place to help with arbitration?

6) What about accommodation and food, if this were to be an issue?

7) what is the nature of the reciprocal relationship?  Who does what for each other?

8) Does the network communicate together?  Is that ok?  What are the levels of consent given to sharing information between the network?

9) Would a 'Family Group Conference' be useful for improving communication and understanding? (A meeting designed to clarify the roles people have in families to achieve shared goals.)

9) When does the network end?

What is 

Humorous thoughts

 Courtesy of Camdyn and Wayne Butler of Waynebutlercomedy, the ultimate in 'Dad Jokes' (my favourite).

1) What's the best film for an anti-vaxer to watch?  - Mrs Doubtpfizer.

2) A toast to the guy who invented 'Zero'.  "Thank for nothing."

3) It's sad that that wedding photographer was crushed by that big block of Cheddar.  Especially after the whole wedding party tried so hard to warn him.

4) I've spent ages renovating my house.  I started on the ground floor, and then moved up.  But that's another story.

5) I accidently swallowed a whole bunch of scrabble tiles, and now I fear a trip to the bathroom may spell disaster. 

6) Ants are prone to getting sick because they have little antibodies.

7) I saw this radio in the charity shop with the warning that the volume was suck at maximum, and I thought I can't turn that down.  

A significant moment in UK history?

An Aontú press conference

 5th May 2022, the day that Sinn Féin became the biggest political party in Northern Ireland, may go down in history as significant.  The unionist vote was still the biggest, but a number of indicators point to significant change ahead.

1) In 2019 a splinter party from Sinn Féin was formed called Aontú (which ironically means 'unity'). Aontú  is a conservative Irish national party based in the Republic.  Party splits can be read as a sign of strength, as the party now has the power to be able to split and survive.

2) The Alliance Party became the third party of NI.  Again this shows the acceptance that an accommodation is necessary as NI moves forward.  The separation of Britain from the EU has had the biggest impact on Ireland as an Island.  One of the reasons the UK was able to leave the EU is because it is largely an Island.  But the 310 miles of border between the UK and the EU is not insignificant.  'Thinking' people of Ireland are preparing for a safe and caring transition.

3) The SNP won the most council seats in Scotland.  Time and again the polls show that there is a persisting appetite for independence, and with the other shifting sands in UK politics, this is not likely to change.  Some voted, as many French votes said, between 'cholera and the plague', but the SNP does stand primarily for independence above all things, and there are alternatives.

4) No one wants to upset the queen, but when she dies there will be a period of instability where change will be a greater possibility.  The Scots do not like the Torys, and it looks like England is stuck with one party rule for some time.  Ironically the days when we had a Scottish PM, and a majority Scottish cabinet, as we did in the Blair Brown era, feel long ago.

If Thursday's votes were translated into  national votes, no one party would hold a majority.  Labour would have been able to form a minority government with the other parties (including the SNP).  The SNP would then get it's independence referendum, and the coalition government would fall.  

Antony's Inferno

9 Circles of Hell

 

I recently listening to a dramatic rendering of Dante's Inferno, and it got me thinking. 

How in touch am I with fragility and pain?  This is Antony's Inferno, a modern update.

"Why do you sit there, outside the Shanghai Moon?"

I enter the restaurant, acknowledging my discomfort. 

"There is your cardboard coffee cup and discarded sandwich wrappers. Someone's looked after you, but what is this to me?' 

"Yes, I come here to eat and drink excessively. The luxury of a restaurant,  but what is that to you?"

In Sheffield we visited a Wagamama where a waiter serving us had such a hideous skin disfigurement.  He was clearly excellent at his job, but the terror of seeing him.... Just his skin.  The mental image seared frightful images on my brain.  I resolutely thought that here there was a manager with fine principles.  "Accept my staff or don't come here at all."  One day will I return?  Can I swallow my cognitive pain?

When I was younger, someone threw a brick through the window of an Indian Restaurant.  How was I to respond?  I posted a card through the door declaring how this incident upset me.  Was I making assumptions?  My brother questioned my motives.  More thoughts to contend with.

Every year of my life in the NHS I have undertaken mandatory training.  It's the most important part of my job.  Every year I recall the ratio of breaths to heart compressions.  The only time I may have needed this training occurred long before I joined the NHS.  I was queuing for a bus at Victoria coach station.  An elder woman fell forwards into me and slumped to the floor.  Quickly people around seemed to know what to do.  Wonderful, alive, people; angels.  They pumped at her chest, they pulled at her clothes.  I could see that woman was no longer alive.  Her belly began to swell with air.  

Later, as the bus slowly snaked through the southern boroughs of London, I thought of a lonely flat.  The flat that this woman would not return to.  In one moment, the value of her possessions will have slumped, just as she did.  Value is in the mind and heart.  To love something is to give it value.  To love someone; the same.  Without love nothing is of value.  

I was visiting my grandmother.

By the way, I've visited Diss on the southern border of Norfolk.  I not sure why Dante too such exception to it. He placed it in the sixth circle of hell.  Today I heard on the radio that there is a major steam music festival happening there this weekend.  I sounded very innocent.