My child’s latest impressive scientific discovery (pre-Copernican astronomy):
“Look mummy, that’s the sun coming up. Later the sun goes down and it gets really dark, and in the morning the sun comes up and it gets all light again.” It was a jolly fine sunrise as we walked the dogs together; all red behind the silhouetted trees on the skyline.
The (male) Scout leaders:
“When did you say your baby was due… flippin’ heck, what are you doing here… don’t tell me you came on your bike… you can tell she’s imported… if that was an Argentinean woman she’d be lying around in bed demanding we wait on her… she’s more like one of those aboriginals, they’re tough birds…” I suspect it’s a compliment, personally I’m hoping that if I keep moving he might be encouraged out more quickly than if I give him too many opportunities to get comfortable.
The predictable response of the local police department when we reported our village mother missing:
“She’s an adult, she’s free to go where she wants” Of course… as long as she is free to go where she wants, and so far we have no proof that she has freely gone anywhere. And where the experiences of her life so far are sufficient to convince you that she’s not worth giving a damn about, I would argue that they render her vulnerable enough to look for. So you might consider doing something to demonstrate that the bird-poo on your shoulder has some useful value. (actually I didn’t say most of that, but I did say enough that they grudgingly extracted some details. Whether they do anything with them…).
The parallel stories of two kids needing surgery:
Stories of the injustice of life, albeit for different reasons. Go check out Tia’s blog for one of them. The other is my mate here, who should have had his hip surgery a month ago, but may not get it at all unless we can locate his mother, or demonstrate conclusively that she is no longer his primary care-giver (i.e. by her voluntarily signing him over, having him forcibly removed from her care, or being proven deceased). Bureaucracy takes priority over medical need; after five years here maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.
Martyn’s Joseph’s Dolphins:
That’s truly a blast from the past, I hadn’t heard it for years, but I did a YouTube hunt since he came into my mind as I was ruminating on the sheer offence of the injustices that some people have to go through. I can’t remember what album I had Dolphins on (aged cassette… possibly still languishing in a loft) but it was live, and I remember the spoken introduction used to kill me every time “…because this world could never be the way it was supposed to be…”
Dolphins make me cry….
Don’t know what the world is going to do
Or if we can get off the road that we’re on
There’s hate in my brother’s eye but as the time goes by,
I get harder.
They say we learn by our mistakes and then we carry on
Sometimes I’m not sure, sometimes I’m not sure
There’s no brakes on this car as it rolls down the hill
My muscles are straining now, my foot’s through the floor.
Perhaps that’s why, perhaps that’s why…
I see the dolphins and it makes me cry
As I look in your eyes, I look in your eyes
As the time goes by, makes me cry.
Don’t want to go to school anymore today
Because history, she keeps on repeating herself
She can’t forgive; she just licks all of her wounds
Sore is the day, and sore is the night.
Perhaps that’s why, perhaps that’s why…
I see the dolphins and it makes me cry
As I look in your eyes, I look in your eyes
As the time goes by, makes me cry.
When I was a boy, when I was growing up
I remember life was so simple; life was so sweet
Now that I’m older, I’m wise as a fool
I keep on breaking those golden, golden rules…
And perhaps that’s why, perhaps that’s why
I see the dolphin and it makes me cry.
As I look in your eye, as I look in your eye
As the time goes by, makes me cry.
Perhaps that’s why… …
I see the dolphin and it makes me cry.
As I look in your eye, ask I look in your eye
As the time goes by, makes me cry.
Did you ever touch the loneliness of a broken man?
Did you see a starving child die?
Do we really do these things to one another?
Do you see why…
Dolphins make… me cry.