Sunday 18 March 2018

Whose report will you believe?


The other day I watched an evening news programme interview various Russian public regarding their views on the 'spy poisoning' incident which has recently occured in Britain. One young woman was at a loss to answer who she thought was telling the truth. She confessed that she could trust no one. 'Well how do you know what to believe?' was the final question, to which she sadly shrugged her shoulders and admitted that she could trust no one.

How sad.

This is the dilemma we face. Depending on who is doing the reporting, many of us find we could agree with both sides simultaneously - there is so much spin and cover up.

The rise of social media has not helped  - each of us has learned to create our own realities, ones which we are happy to live with.  We have become experts at being spin doctors in our own worlds, happily creating  our own reality from which we attempt to navigate life.

But..... what is true and who do we believe and which story is the most credible?

The art of debating has dwindled - Oxford University recently berated the fact that this generation do not appear to know how to be open minded to alternative views and intolerant of reasoned discussion.
Some universities are now making the ability to debate a requirement of student admission!

Which brings me to the reason I began this blog. I am becoming more of the opinion that we need some clear moral guidelines and boundaries to help frame our world view to help us navigate the world of spin and lies and exploitation.

There's nothing new under the sun and without a clear framework to life in these days of fake news and social media 'reality', the only outcome for a generation devoid of this, is mental health issues and suicide.

There....I said it!
I dared to challenge the 'elephant' in the room concerning mental health.
In my view it's linked with a lack of clear boundaries to do with thinking and 'being' in a world which is at best confused and at worst set to become destroyed by power hungry, manipulative and evil beings.

I find my own peace of mind in the midst of a world in turmoil coming from the wisdom found within the ancient book...there is nothing new under the sun. We fool and oursleves to think we're special and 'enlightened'  and would be best humbling ourselves under the hand of God.

My own mental health is kept stable through my belief that God has made a way through Jesus that will lead us all into an eternal destiny that far surpasses anyone or anything that the physical world has to offer. Jesus has shown us how to live in a way that is fully alive. There is a better and higher Kingdom and rule than the rulers of this world have to offer.

That's worth living for. That's worth standing for. That's worth shouting from the rooftops....there IS a truth that stands that you CAN trust and will give you peace of mind and assurance for the future.

May God bless you and lead you into all truth in the days ahead.


Tuesday 27 February 2018

Maggots and Mothers


I was given much food for thought last weekend as I listened to friends of ours field phone calls and messages regarding their youngest son who is now at university. Both parents had become personally involved in 'dialogue' with the university regarding an absence the son had taken due to illness. They were fully hands on, arranging that the hospital doctors send letters to the appropriate people in order to ensure their son did not miss out on one of the exams he had missed.

I began to wonder if my husband and I had failed our daughter who at A level results stage nearly 2 years ago, had experienced a blow that would have had my friends writing to the local, if not national newspapers in order to get justice for their son. 
I can see it now - 'Maggots cause A level fails in local school.'

I didn't respond in the above way for all sorts of reasons but as time has passed I sincerely regret that decision and wish I had stood up for my daughter by at least contacting the school. It was all because they had used live MAGGOTS in the practical part of her A level Human Biology exam!

I was never a pushy parent. Not the sort that likes to join the PTA, smooze with the head teacher and generally make themselves known for personal gain.
Our daughter was great at science and it was a 'science' school. We watched her blossom academically to the point where she was predicted an A in 'A' level Human Biology. Happy Days.

The day the results came out I watched what should have been an ecstatic moment turn into a damp squib. I don't think she or I fully registered what had gone wrong. The practical part of the exam for which she had high hopes of a good grade, was a FAIL! Resulting in a C grade.

She was devastated but over the next few weeks held it together well as she was informed by the school they were going to question the examiners decisions. For a whole school to FAIL this part of the exam because they had used live MAGGOTS in their practical experiment was not acceptable.

The irony of ironies is that my daughter had HATED the maggots - they made her feel phyiscally sick.  I went online to look at photo's of them to put at the head of this blog but felt horrified at the images that appeared. During her practical she'd had to put one in her mouth to warm it up! She said that they were the most pampered and well looked after maggots ever. She told me that they were fortunate maggots as they were alive by the end of it. Should they have ended up being purchased by a fisherman they would have been 'gonners'.  

I sat back and let my daughter do the running. She was 18 I reasoned. I guess the school were no longer 'obliged' to write to us as parents and let us know the error that had occured. Even as I write this I realise how crazy that sounds as a justification for not making more of a fuss over what happened. Having had a relationship with the school for 10 years with constant communication, invitations to awards etc, why should the school think we were no longer interested?

My daughter tells me the school appealed and were told the decision was final, all the pupils had failed this part of the exam and there was no further way of appeal. The tragedy is that this was the last time this particular exam was being taken. There was no way my daughter could even resit!

Maybe going to the local papers would have helped?
I regret that I didn't!

Sadly this blog is too little too late. 

To our daughter - 
We're SO SORRY! You will always be our daughter and from now on we'll always try to stick up for you, fight with you and stand by you. We love you and are proud of you, that despite set backs and the education system letting you down at the last hurdle, we know you'll go far.