Archive for the 'Opinion' Category

Sometimes I get a little down – even depressed

I sometimes get depressed watching the television news or reading the newspaper and learning of the absolute depravity of some people. When I go online I discover that the internet seems to be the place where many of them congregate.

Then I spend time with friends or colleagues or the folk at church and I am uplifted again. When I experience the generosity and love and care and courage of others I am amazed and encouraged. Life then is good, people are great and all is well with my world.

Each one of us can do our little bit to make this a better place.

We CAN change the world – one kind, loving, caring act at a time.

Further reading:

• To read more in my series of opinion pieces click here.

A few days ago I wrote about a you beaut Christmas present I received – a wonderful label maker. I also grizzled a little about the fact that batteries were not included. Imagine my annoyance that I didn’t buy the right sized batteries, so now I have a big pack of AA batteries that I don’t really need at present; sure they will get used over the coming months for various things like clocks. I didn’t take all that much notice and didn’t realise that the label maker needed 6 AAA batteries.

Went shopping this morning. I went to buy some AAA batteries. No problem, you’d think. Wrong. The store only stocked packs of four or eight – I needed six. Why do they do that? Now I have two useless batteries. I can’t think of anything else in the house that needs AAA batteries. (I have a sneaking suspicion that something takes AAA batteries but can’t think what it is. Is it one of the remotes? Must check.)

The Good News

So on arrival home I installed the six batteries and stored the two spare batteries in a place I’ll probably forget about. I fired up the label maker. Now here’s the good news – it does a fantastic job. All I need now is plenty of time to go and label everything in sight.

Ha ha – just let me loose.

Now – if only I could get it away from my wife; it was a combined present!

“I have to forgive the world – it probably doesn’t even realize how often it upsets me.” Ashleigh Brilliant

I must be getting old.

More and more I am getting cranky about the world and some of the people in it. Talk about becoming a grumpy old man. It is not what I want at all; I’d rather be joyful, optimistic and forward looking, but events around me and things happening on a global scale are making me grumpy.

Take, for example, the newly elected Labor Government in Australia. One of the first things Prime Minister Kevin Rudd rushed out to do was to promise to sign the Kyoto Agreement on climate change. Sounds good, noble and worthwhile – until you step back and take a cold hard look at the reality.

It is my opinion that even if we stopped using every vehicle in Australia today, and closed down every factory and power plant in our country, on a global scale it would mean very little – so close to zero, zilch, zip that it wouldn’t matter at all. Meanwhile, counties like China, India, some European countries and the United States ignore the prospects of total disaster on a global scale and merrily go on filling the atmosphere with their rubbish.

We are all on this planet together and everyone has to play their part. Until the massive polluters of this world start making a major shift in their practices, I’m afraid the agreement is a toothless tiger, not worth the paper it is written on.

“We must save the world. After all, it is the only planet with chocolate.”

Floriade 2007, Canberra

Special Note: This is the first in a series of occasional essays entitled “Opinion.” The opinions expressed in these articles are my own humble opinions. You are invited to join in the debate either through the contact form or through the comments section. I reserve the right to moderate comments.