Longer Days

The longer days started well.  Wandering up to Sainsbury's for the things forgotten last time out I noted the rising mist against the slowly rising sun.  How lovely to be out there in this weather.  This however was not the attitude of the workmen unloading their vehicles across at the building site.  A more grumpy tendency was noticeable as they heading into the old school they were turning into expensive flats.  I considered smiling but avoided this as unpleasantness in the morning is unwise.

At Sainbury's I obtained lots of things, some of which I went for, and yet again forgot to make use of the reward vouchers, I have about £8 that would have been useful this morning.  I suppose this will be even more useful when January kicks in.  British Gas (overpriced) sent me an email informing me i had won thousands of points on this voucher system.  Hmmm, sounds good.  I was tempted to click on the link to my account but hesitated and went to that through my own link.  Nothing there as yet I noted.  This does appear to be British Gas as they send such things often, it is on an email account in which spam is rare, and my first name is given, however while cheered by a gift I await the points being added (in 10 days) to see if this is genuine.  If not I delete, if it is true then lunch is served!

On a serious note I was kept awake last night by the Police helicopter choosing my bed to hang over for what appeared to be hours.  In fact there was a fire in a nearby street which left two dead and house destroyed.  The cause will be uncovered in due course.
This sad incident has revealed much in the town.  Traffic has been affected, it occurred on a main road, and people have been leaving tributes.  Now traffic problems in these circumstances just have to be borne, the tributes and attitudes revealed do not.  
It was something not done in Scotland, a Presbyterian nation, the leaving of flowers at an accident spot.  To me it still appear 'Romanish' and even worse synthetic.  People die and flowers, teddy bears and gifts arrive but the victims will never see these, why do it?  It is not done for the victims, it is done for the people leaving the gifts.  When incidents happen people grieve and this is good and understandable.  However you do not know these people and in life may have resented them if you did so why do this?  You do this because you ache, not they.  This is not 'Love your neighbour.' 
Photographs of the firemen at work have appeared on the local facebook page.  Many are complaining these ought to be removed.  I object!  Publishing photos shows to us what occurred and those girning appear unable or unwilling to accept reality.  The nation once was renown for the 'Stiff upper lip' and just 'getting on with it,' today we must sentimentalise all events, death, accident, war memorial, you name it.  The minutes silence once rare at football grounds is now compulsory at all events even when the incident is neither local nor connected in any way with the football.  Some events are worldwide but these are few, the death of Brazilian footballers recently was one, but while all mourn these men there is no minute silence for Syria, no mention of the dead in the Congo, no concern for hunger elsewhere.  
The emotion is a false one, limited in scope and spurred on by young folks who cannot face life  with 'tough love' and must live in a soap opera daily.  This cannot be allowed to continue.  We all feel emotion at such times but this needs control.  Once footballers stood silently at a minutes silence, now they must place arms around one another,once we faced life's tragedies now we must emote them.  It is not right!  Compassion does not mean removing hard pictures, it means doing something about it.

As I crossed the roaring cascading water that is the local river I noted a wee beastie running over the traffic cone helpfully planted near his home.  I could not make out what it was but suspect it was a water vole as I canny think what else would live there.  He was well fed mind.  The ducks appeared to ignore him, they were playing football with a large green ball kindly donated by someone, and I thought that this wee burn could be made attractive if the time and money was there.  As it is several trees were removed and houses built.  Above this section a block of flats now stands and the tenants passed me by dreaming of paying off mortgages in the 2030's if they are lucky.

 
For once I have rendered the sun as it was tonight!  As it slipped down behind the crumbling 1960's estate it gave off such a glow that I had to catch it.  The passing public did not notice this great sight, their eyes were on lesser things like Christmas, evening repast or drink!  How often we miss such sights because small things obscure our vision.

Stiff Upper Lip?

At the beginning of the Edinburgh Derby this lunchtime there was a moment of remembrance for two who had passed away this week.  The crowd stood and applauded for one minute in an act of remembrance and then the game got under way.  This is not an unusual event, sadly such moments occur throughout the season, occasionally involving the entire league, often at a local level involving only one club.  This is of course perfectly acceptable behaviour and is to be itself applauded.
However I mused on the emotion involved in society these days.  Until recently such moments passed in complete silence as this was considered appropriate at someones passing.  The increase of televised football coverage allowed us the sight of Italians at such moments applauding for one minute and many considered this appropriate to introduce.  There are other reasons, some clubs fans are unwilling to allow such respect to pass without abuse of the dead or their supporters, on at least one occasion my own club has some fans who indulged in such ignorant abuse.  For this reason applause is sometimes suggested instead of silence.  However the individual who has died on occasion finds such respect from the fans they automatically respond in whatever is the better style.
This also reflects on the increase of emotion allowed, or all to often encouraged, today.  Where once we were told to 'don't show you are hurt,' or 'make the best of it,' 'get up and sort it,' today raucous whining appears to be the order of the day.  Self control is less important and respect offered for the dead often is not extended to the living!  People at heart remain the same as when we left the Garden of Eden, however you imagine that.  Culture however changes all the time.  I suspect the mess that was 18th century Britain (and I refer only to the UK here) with the five year old alcoholics, industrial revolution and the resultant problems and social breakdown all helped to develop an attitude of a more organised society in the 19th century.  The influence of preachers cannot be ignored as the men changed during the 1700s by the preaching of Wesley, Whitfield and the rest often produced families who worked their way up in society over the next fifty years bringing change wherever they went.  Add of course Queen Victoria once she had found Albert as consort there arose a fashion for respectability allied to Christian influence which reached everywhere.  The 'Public Schools,' never of course open to the 'public,' developed the 'Masculine Christianity,' line whereby you took the knocks and carried on.  Being able to take knocks without complaining sounds good but often it was abused by others who enjoyed inflicting knocks and grumbling if you did not like it,'Take the knocks and be a man,' they would say, while leathering you!  
This stiff upper lip society reached it's zenith during the Great War, and survived!  So many writings from the time show that knocks were expected and folks just 'got on and dealt with it.' This is certainly an attitude gone from us today.  'Daily Mail' readers blame the benefit society, while really just disliking any of their tax helping the poor, or indeed anyone else.  Religious blame religious faith wavering, political minds blame systems, clever people debate endlessly, oh how endlessly, on TV and radio to no end whatsoever.  Indeed wealth has made society lazy, the ability to always have what we want makes us greedy, deprivation is almost intolerable to us today while the house remains filled with expensive 'must have' things that are rarely used.   While emotion has always been part of football it is not what it was in my view.  Football was emotional in the 60's but better, today the intensity is greater, the game less enjoyable.  Money plays its part but football or TV or money or politics or any other thing takes a different place in our emotions today from what it did before.  Two world wars and a depression followed by a time of new hope, housing, NHS, and full employment are replaced by wealth undreampt off by our grandfathers, well mine at least, items filling the house our forefathers thought only the rich could dream about, holidays abroad (well Bournemouth) cars, planes and the internet all affect our outlook and lessen the 'still upper lip' as it appears not to matter today.  What matters is satisfying the self, nothing else.  'Me first' has always been part of society, today 'me' and my emotions appear to dominate.

Maybe of course I just ramble.  However the result of the football was yet another victory for the Heart of Midlothian, thus giving me the giggles in a manner I am unused to.  I spent much of the game sniggering at the Hibbys and giggling like a lassie every time the camera focused on one with his head in his hands.  I did all this in love of course, but I had to laugh, and have been cackling ever since.   

 

Emotions

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Emotions are funny things. We all have them, we all fail to control them, or control them too much. None of us can enjoy life without them and some of us enjoy the emotions more than we ought. This thought crossed my mind, and you wish it had continued to cross, when I realised how satisfied I appeared to be after the Heart of Midlothian defeated Millwall in a testimonial match for their man Neil Harris. It was indeed a mere friendly match, but with an honourable intent, and the fact that the side is beginning to merge together leaves me feeling quite satisfied, and having a man who can score from free kicks is also pleasing me. Now I know there are more important things in life, however a football team winning brings a strange happiness, and many share this emotion. The emotions of the wee team the other night, that is the Hibs losing to a side they had never heard of before, does give us an inkling into the opposite type of reaction.  However, we will not go there, as this might provoke another emotional reaction from me, one accompanied with a lot of sniggering to be honest!

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