Virtual Methodist

This is the bit of this meme I just wanted to skip, because as I read over other people's ones most of them were either exercises in fantasy conspicuous consumerism, or, and this largely applied to Christian ones, exercises of nauseatingly saccharine spirituality. But I've started so I'll finish. I don't think I have ever written a Christmas list... Not with any expectation of receiving what I wanted... I do keep a "wish list" on Amazon, in order to help my family when they are flailing around trying to think of what to buy me for Christmas or Easter... However, I'm not very good at updating it, so slap it up me when I get multiples of the same thing... None of what follows appear on my Amazon list, nor are you likely to be able to purchase them for Christmas... As with the rest of this meme I have kept to the trivial end of the spectrum, so please take it for granted that I want peace in this province/the world, relief of world hunger, happiness for ...

Readers of this blog will know by now that I do a monthly stint on a local independent radio station, offering reflections on the Sunday newspaper headlines and a "Review of the Week" as part of an early morning religious magazine programme, which in its latest incarnation is called "Dawn Reflections". Today the headlines covered three broad areas depending on what papers you looked at. The Irish nationals (eg. the Irish Independent and Irish Times ) had stories critical of the past and present Irish governments' handling of the economic crisis, and reflected a spirit akin to Fraser from Dad’s Army telling us “We’re all doomed!” The erstwhile broadsheets of Britain , meanwhile, filled their front pages with photographs of a beturbaned Saif al-Islam Gaddhafi, who was captured yesterday trying to flee Libya... (Although the Observer also found space to highlight a letter from Church of England Archbishops and Bishops critical of the current indescrim...

Sorry, got it all wrong... I'm not a diabetic because I have eaten far too much of the wrong sort of food and not taken enough exercise throughout my life... It's all my Mum's fault! And the fact that she gave me baby milk in bottles containing BPA... A chemical called Bisphenol A (BPA) which is to be found in many plastics including those used to make baby's bottles, the lining for food cans, tuperware, the plastic shielding in mobile phones etc. It is apparently being linked to obesity and diabetes... as well as some cancers. US manufacturers are withdrawing it from baby-related items, but British health watchdogs claim that uptake from such items are well below safe levels. I'm not making a judgment on the safety levels... Actually, I would tend to err on the side of extreme caution... We don't need to introduce any more active chemicals into our systems than we absolutely have to... Especially when we really don't understand all the side-effects. But PL...

Today I have to go see the dietician. I am, as some of you know, diabetic. When asked I sometimes say that the Dalai Lama made me a diabetic... because I was diagnosed with diabetes at a time when I was stressed out over arrangements for his visit to West Belfast... It was also a week before the birth of my second son Ciaran... so at other times I claim that it was the stress of his impending arrival that was the decisive factor... Typical of me, with other people it is the expectant mother who becomes diabetic, I had to be different! But the fact of the matter is that whilst stress has been shown to contribute to the onset of type-2 diabetes, it is only a minor and possibly a secondary factor. Much more important is our genes, and in my case it is a nice little gift that my Dad gave to my eldest brother and me. However, both my Dad and brother got diabetes much later in life, suggesting that there was something else at work with me. It could be the stress I was under at that time, but...