Beatification

I am sure that the truth about Mother Teresa lies somewhere between Christopher Hitchins' view and that of the political wing of the Roman Catholic Church. Fundamentally she was a human being, and like all human beings, fallible. She had a very good press coverage and a recognisable image. She was a distraction from paedophile priests and other un-Christinalike activities in one of the wealthiest organisations in the world. Her death, refocussed the public eye just where the church did not want it and so what do they do?  

Beatification does not happen too often, as by their own rules, they have to prove that miracles have been brought about. Now it seems that two patients have recovered after she prayed for them. Enough evidence to now refer to her as Saint Teresa.  Does this not seem rather mediaeval?  Does it not demonstrate that the whole process is and always has been a political move?  It does encourage speculation into what they are up to now.

It's a funny time of year

September is here already, the nights are drawing in and the hot spell seems to have strands of chill in  it. Spiders webs are more visible in the mornings and the leaves are showing signs of ageing.

More important than these things, the shops are in a back to school frenzy. For weeks now they have been teasing parents with their advertisements, but now reality is looming large and many parents are so looking forward to getting rid of their kids for five days a week.

As a child, the summer holidays seemed very long and often very warm. We had very few things to look forward to apart from not being at school, and both parents were at work so we made do and created our own entertainment. I am sure there were times when boredom would take hold but by and large there was always something to do in the big outdoors.

As a a teacher the holidays seemed very short and the last week in particular was rather like a sunday night, with the spectre of monday morning sitting on your shoulder.  There will be many teachers out there now feeling the stress building again as they prepare for yet another fun packed academic year. Many will be parents too and will have very mixed emotions regarding the back to school experience. Uniforms will have been outgrown and will need replacing at great cost, equipment will have to be replaced so that their kids are not disadvantaged.

I had a leather satchel; it was given to me by my grandparents when I passed the eleven plus, and I kept it going until I left school seven years later.  I guess it didn't carry much of interest, a few books, a ruler, set square and protractor and maybe a packed lunch. There were no electronic items then, no calculators, no tablets or mobile phones, times were much simpler and in many ways much easier.
Children today have all the material things they want; even the poorer families seem to have mobile phones and computers and of course access to social media and all of the problems that come with that.  In my day social media was limited to graffiti written on desktops with the point of a compass.

So next week children will be squeaky clean, well groomed and dressed, lined up for photos and sent on their way to the next year of their education and mothers will heave sighs of relief along with grandparents who have been in loco parentis for the last six weeks., and the world will get back to normality for a while.