You are what you Tweet

This one has been bubbling for a while in my head, particularly this last week with the furor over the Pope's visit to England. I'm not a Catholic; I disagree with a lot of what Catholics believe, and I think £12m was possibly slightly excessive for a 4-day visit when an emphasis of the priesthood is to live simply BUT I do think that as the figurehead of a major world religion and the head of a State, however small it may be, the Pope deserved to be able to come to Britain unchallenged and safe from abuse. By all means, take him to task about various views he might hold, or things he's allowed to go ultimately unchallenged in his church, but give him the basic respect that his position merits.

*steps off soapbox**

ANYWAY. Twitter. I've actually unfollowed people this week based on their views and what they have tweeted. They probably won't even notice; they probably don't even care, but to me, I don't want to be reading that, and I don't want people to read that when they come to my page. I have no problem with people expressing their views when backed up with educated fact/opinion, but when they are just tweeting abusive jokes or making disrespectful comments, I don't want to know. Stephen Fry will probably never even notice that he has one less follower, let alone even care, but I am what I tweet. I don't want my integrity questioned as a result of people I follow.

Love, etc.

xx

Feeding The Cats

For the past 10 days, The Drummer & I have been feeding Profound Admirer's cats whilst she is away on holiday. When she asked me to help out, it didn't even occur to me to say no - its really not that taxing to put out their food and give them a cuddle each day. She & her husband are so lovely and supportive that it is nice to be able to help them out, albeit in such a small way.

The added bonus from my point of view is that they live a few minutes away from us, meaning that The Drummer and I have had a series of evening walks there and back where we have no iPhones, no tv, no internet, no distractions of any kind, other than passing minis and yellow cars. Coming at the end of increasingly busy days, I think I'm going to miss our walks when they get back at the end of the week.

"Every now and then, when the world sits just right, a gentle breath of heaven

fills my soul with delight..."

A Breath of Heaven by Hazelmarie ‘Mattie’ Elliott

Love, etc.

xx

Chosen

Yesterday was a weird day. I thought I'd be spending the whole day being told what an amazing profession teaching was. I thought I'd be told it was a vocation and be persuaded that I was a fantastic person for wanting to spend my life teaching the youth of society. I thought it would be a day of paperwork and form-filling and dullness.

Don't get me wrong, all of the above was true, but there was also the overwhelming sense of utter confidence that the tutors had in us all. Person after person told us how they had seen something in us that would ultimately make a good teacher. The course convener told us how lucky we all were to be there since there had been so many applications; the Head of Department congratulated us on getting this far; the Vice-Chancellor spent (far) too long telling us how we were the hope of future generations (or something) But through it all, they kept telling us all how they'd chosen us. How they wanted us. How they believed in us.

Our English lecturer (lets call her The Huntress) really rammed it home during our subject induction in the afternoon. 242 people applied before she closed the course. She interviewed 71. 39 of us got places. She saw something in us that set us apart from everyone else who applied. She saw something in us that she can make good teachers out of. She believes in me more after a twenty minute interview than I believe in myself after 23 years.

Unexpected, but not altogether unwelcome.

Love, etc

xx

The Little Things

When I was waiting at the station last week for The Drummer to buy our tickets, the guy next to him, who was clearly in a very flustered rush, pulled out his wallet and dropped his pen. I leaned down to pick it up for him, and, with his reaction of “Oh....thankyou very much!” he seemed more than slightly surprised that I had done so. Later in that same train journey, a guy on a very crowded tube offered me his seat, which in turn left me surprised since that practically NEVER happens on the London Tube, even for pregnant women or older people.

Its sad when doing something so simple for someone else is seen as surprising, but the more I think about it, the more it seems that “self-first, others second” is the way to live. I don’t expect everyone to live to the same higher moral code to which I chose to hold myself accountable; not everyone shares the same religious views, and I wouldn’t expect that they should, but whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, Agnostic or Atheist, surely somewhere in each person there is the basic desire to do good. To do the right thing. To not look in the opposite direction when someone is in need. To just be human and to care.

Let’s change the world. One little thing at a time.

Love, etc.

xx