Posts from December 2013
Providence
Life is made up of numerous little events but also some occasional momentous ones. Life involves numerous little choices but also some occasional big choices. This past week, amongst all the busyness of the ordinary daily routines and the added pressure of sending out Christmas cards to the family I was shocked to hear of the death of a Facebook acquaintance, who I knew from my days in Sydney. Anthony died suddenly of a heart attack – and he wasn’t…
The death of a saint… ?
I saw enough of the funeral formalities of Nelson Mandela to be impressed. The long list of official welcomes was like a who’s who of international politics, royalty and other miscellaneous celebrities. This former president of the Republic of South Africa was obviously well liked – evidenced in the fact that from the moment of his death media commentators were trying to outdo one another in testifying to Mandela’s greatness. From my perspective some of that is with justification. On…
And the downhill slide continues
In the Land of the Long White Cloud there was a disturbing development this past week. A New Zealand mother and father were declared to have suffered a “personal injury” and were entitled to compensation from New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). Okay… I’m sure the NZ courts make those rulings with monotonous regularity and it’s good that there is a system for which those who have suffered serious personal injury can receive some sort of compensation. What was unusual…
Pearls (a postscript)
It’s rather nice when someone picks up on something you’ve written. It means that people do read what you write. Reaction to last week’s bulletin blog leads me to revisit the subject of pearls. There was a rather glaring omission I made. Thanks for those who pointed it out to me thus giving me the opportunity to elaborate further. For the benefit of those who didn’t read it, I wondered out loud why Jesus spoke of the gospel of the…