Tendring Topics…….on Line
My New Year Resolution
My late wife Heather continually urged me to ‘count my many blessings’, quoting from a chorus that many years earlier she had used as a Methodist Sunday School teacher; ‘Count your blessings, count them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done’.
Looking back on the year that is drawing to a close I realize that, probably like many old people, I have in this blog and elsewhere, been much more ready to grumble and find fault with the customs and institutions of the 21st Century, than to be thankful for the many that have benefited me.
I shall however never cease to be grateful for television (including much-maligned daytime tv), for video tape recording, and for DVDs during the last two years of my wife’s life. She had been an avid reader and a great letter writer but progressive disability made her unable to do either. She could though, still watch and enjoy tv programmes. During the brief times that I had to be absent for essential shopping and so on, these made life tolerable for her.
Then again, I have been more than thankful for computers, printers and scanners! I had never touched a computer until I was 79 but have since taken to them, if not like a duck to water, at least like an elderly dog that late in life discovers that it enjoys a swim. In the ‘70s and ‘80s I wrote half a dozen books on domestic plumbing and drainage, first on an Olivetti portable and later on a Brother electronic typewriter (more sophisticated than a ‘manual’, but not very much!). When these books ran to a second edition, I had in each case virtually to rewrite the entire book. How much hard labour (and how many pints of Tippex correcting fluid!) would have been spared if I had then had the little lap-top on which I am typing these words.
My New Year Resolution
My late wife Heather continually urged me to ‘count my many blessings’, quoting from a chorus that many years earlier she had used as a Methodist Sunday School teacher; ‘Count your blessings, count them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done’.
Looking back on the year that is drawing to a close I realize that, probably like many old people, I have in this blog and elsewhere, been much more ready to grumble and find fault with the customs and institutions of the 21st Century, than to be thankful for the many that have benefited me.
I shall however never cease to be grateful for television (including much-maligned daytime tv), for video tape recording, and for DVDs during the last two years of my wife’s life. She had been an avid reader and a great letter writer but progressive disability made her unable to do either. She could though, still watch and enjoy tv programmes. During the brief times that I had to be absent for essential shopping and so on, these made life tolerable for her.
Then again, I have been more than thankful for computers, printers and scanners! I had never touched a computer until I was 79 but have since taken to them, if not like a duck to water, at least like an elderly dog that late in life discovers that it enjoys a swim. In the ‘70s and ‘80s I wrote half a dozen books on domestic plumbing and drainage, first on an Olivetti portable and later on a Brother electronic typewriter (more sophisticated than a ‘manual’, but not very much!). When these books ran to a second edition, I had in each case virtually to rewrite the entire book. How much hard labour (and how many pints of Tippex correcting fluid!) would have been spared if I had then had the little lap-top on which I am typing these words.
At my electronic typewriter in the 1980s, with my plumbing books all around me! I must not forget either how much being able to send and receive emails means to me. By means of email I can be in almost instant touch with my scattered family (including a grandson settled in Taiwan and another whose work takes him to the four corners of the globe!) Old age has made my hand-writing increasingly illegible and often means that my hand, holding a pen, resolutely refuses to obey the orders of my brain! Fortunately I can still use a keyboard with a measure of competence. Then there’s my digital camera and my mobile phone; other people’s ‘mobiles’ can sometimes be a nuisance but, my word, I wouldn’t be without mine. I must I remember too, my electric mobility scooter which makes it possible for me to do my shopping, go to church and to our Quaker Meeting and visit local friends, despite no longer being either a motorist or a cyclist.
All of these things have been benefits conferred on me by the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. They were unknown to my parents or indeed to myself during by far the greater part of my life.
I am also well-endowed with life’s timeless and, ultimately I am sure, much more important blessings. I have a loving and attentive family consisting not just of my sons and grandchildren, but caring nieces and a nephew, and great-nieces and a great-nephew who are more like grandchildren to me. I have a wide circle of friends both in this country and, fairly recently acquired, in Germany. I have a comfortable home, wonderfully supportive neighbours, an adequate income and, so far, few health problems that can’t be attributed simply to old age.
My New Year resolution for 2009 is stop grumbling and count those blessings!
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Happy New Year!
All of these things have been benefits conferred on me by the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. They were unknown to my parents or indeed to myself during by far the greater part of my life.
I am also well-endowed with life’s timeless and, ultimately I am sure, much more important blessings. I have a loving and attentive family consisting not just of my sons and grandchildren, but caring nieces and a nephew, and great-nieces and a great-nephew who are more like grandchildren to me. I have a wide circle of friends both in this country and, fairly recently acquired, in Germany. I have a comfortable home, wonderfully supportive neighbours, an adequate income and, so far, few health problems that can’t be attributed simply to old age.
My New Year resolution for 2009 is stop grumbling and count those blessings!
…………………………………..
Happy New Year!
New Year's Day 1979. My bungalow, in which I have lived since 1956, is the one on the left. Outside it is parked the Toyota motor-caravan in which my wife Heather and I spent many happy holidays, in Britain and in mainland Europe. It must be said that my determination to ‘look on the bright side’ and ‘to count my many blessings’ is being sorely tested by virtually every news bulletin that I hear on radio or tv and by the headlines of every newspaper that I casually pick up. I can’t personally complain. I have had my ups and downs during 2008 but, on balance, it has been a good year for me. It hasn’t been good for everybody though and for many people 2009 looks even more threatening.
Perhaps we should think twice before carelessly wishing friends, relatives and casual acquaintances a ‘Happy New Year’. For a great many of our fellow-countrymen and women 2009 seems likely to be a far-from-happy year. It is certainly beginning badly for those (the employees of Woolworths for example) who have already lost their jobs or will lose them within the next few days. There are too, many thousands of others who are in work at the moment but fear that the next few months will bring them the dreaded redundancy notice.
Nor does the New Year promise much happiness for those facing eviction and homelessness because they have been unable to keep up with their mortgage payments. Those who haven’t quite reached that stage may take some comfort in the fact that the government seems to have at least postponed their eviction for two years. The government evidently feels, as did Mr Micawber, that during that time ‘something is bound to turn up’.
Perhaps it will. Some economists believe that Britain will emerge from recession by the end of 2010. Others think that it may take five years, or even longer. None of them seems very clear about how or why our economy will eventually recover. Could their prophecies simply be based on the conviction that ‘nothing lasts for ever’? J.D. Galbraith once said that there are two kinds of economists, those who can’t predict the future, and those who don’t know that they can’t predict the future! Certainly the predictions of the financial experts during the past few years haven’t been remarkable for their accuracy.
My experience suggests that very little in life proves to be quite so good as one hopes, but that few things are ever quite so bad as one fears. There is a lot more to happiness than security and material possessions, and I have no doubt that for many of us 2009 will prove to be a Happy New Year. I certainly wish it to anyone and everyone who reads this blog.
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The Judgement of the Bishops
When a year or so ago I revived and renewed my membership of the Church of England, I didn’t sign up to approval of every opinion expressed by its hierarchy. Nevertheless I am quite pleased to find myself in total agreement with the five senior bishops who have recently voiced their criticism of the New Labour Government. I think it highly unlikely that any of their Graces have ever glanced at Tendring Topics.….on Line but, had they done so, they would have been likely to have found the same or similar criticisms voiced in this column.
They would have found concern about modern society’s enthusiastic embracing of the ‘consumer economy’, of the relentless pursuit of material wealth (bishops in an earlier age might have described it as the worship of Mammon) and of the consequent break-up of family life and downgrading of moral values. They would have found anxieties about the level of personal debt that has come to be regarded as ‘normal’, and about the gambling culture that believes that a town’s prosperity depends upon whether or not it has a thriving casino; where the best hope of getting out of debt is, for many families, 'coming up on the lottery'! They would have seen continuing concern about the ever-widening gap between the incomes of the poorest in this country and the very wealthiest; the biggest gap in western Europe.
I believe moreover, that the concerns of the Bishops would have been shared by such pioneers of the Labour Movement as Keir Hardie, George Lansbury, Nye Bevan and Jennie Lee, of whom the members of the present government claim to be the political heirs.
The bishops didn’t say whether or not they considered that a change of government would heal the country’s malaise. I think it unlikely. The objectives of the present government are shared by an opposition, which appears to differ only in the means by which it believes those aims may best be achieved.
…………………………..
Perhaps we should think twice before carelessly wishing friends, relatives and casual acquaintances a ‘Happy New Year’. For a great many of our fellow-countrymen and women 2009 seems likely to be a far-from-happy year. It is certainly beginning badly for those (the employees of Woolworths for example) who have already lost their jobs or will lose them within the next few days. There are too, many thousands of others who are in work at the moment but fear that the next few months will bring them the dreaded redundancy notice.
Nor does the New Year promise much happiness for those facing eviction and homelessness because they have been unable to keep up with their mortgage payments. Those who haven’t quite reached that stage may take some comfort in the fact that the government seems to have at least postponed their eviction for two years. The government evidently feels, as did Mr Micawber, that during that time ‘something is bound to turn up’.
Perhaps it will. Some economists believe that Britain will emerge from recession by the end of 2010. Others think that it may take five years, or even longer. None of them seems very clear about how or why our economy will eventually recover. Could their prophecies simply be based on the conviction that ‘nothing lasts for ever’? J.D. Galbraith once said that there are two kinds of economists, those who can’t predict the future, and those who don’t know that they can’t predict the future! Certainly the predictions of the financial experts during the past few years haven’t been remarkable for their accuracy.
My experience suggests that very little in life proves to be quite so good as one hopes, but that few things are ever quite so bad as one fears. There is a lot more to happiness than security and material possessions, and I have no doubt that for many of us 2009 will prove to be a Happy New Year. I certainly wish it to anyone and everyone who reads this blog.
………………………..
The Judgement of the Bishops
When a year or so ago I revived and renewed my membership of the Church of England, I didn’t sign up to approval of every opinion expressed by its hierarchy. Nevertheless I am quite pleased to find myself in total agreement with the five senior bishops who have recently voiced their criticism of the New Labour Government. I think it highly unlikely that any of their Graces have ever glanced at Tendring Topics.….on Line but, had they done so, they would have been likely to have found the same or similar criticisms voiced in this column.
They would have found concern about modern society’s enthusiastic embracing of the ‘consumer economy’, of the relentless pursuit of material wealth (bishops in an earlier age might have described it as the worship of Mammon) and of the consequent break-up of family life and downgrading of moral values. They would have found anxieties about the level of personal debt that has come to be regarded as ‘normal’, and about the gambling culture that believes that a town’s prosperity depends upon whether or not it has a thriving casino; where the best hope of getting out of debt is, for many families, 'coming up on the lottery'! They would have seen continuing concern about the ever-widening gap between the incomes of the poorest in this country and the very wealthiest; the biggest gap in western Europe.
I believe moreover, that the concerns of the Bishops would have been shared by such pioneers of the Labour Movement as Keir Hardie, George Lansbury, Nye Bevan and Jennie Lee, of whom the members of the present government claim to be the political heirs.
The bishops didn’t say whether or not they considered that a change of government would heal the country’s malaise. I think it unlikely. The objectives of the present government are shared by an opposition, which appears to differ only in the means by which it believes those aims may best be achieved.
…………………………..
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