June Happenings

Every now and then I like to write a blog post which is a mish-mash of thoughts. There’s no real connection beyond the fact that I have been thinking about them. Sometimes it’s major world news, sometimes it’s closer to home. So, let’s see the kaleidoscope of stuff my brain has come up with this month.
Gay Marriage
Or as we now simply call it, marriage. The supreme court in the USA has voted that marriage between two people of the same gender should be legal, like it is in most of the Western world. I am delighted. I have mentioned here before about how equality is so important to me and although there are issues in other areas, the biggest one globally is how gay people are treated.
I cannot imagine how horrible it would be not to be allowed to marry the person you love because the government has decided that person is the wrong gender for you to love. It’s ridiculous. I once had quite a heated argument with a Christian about gay marriage. It seems silly that some parts of a religious text can be ignored and considered old-fashioned whereas other cannot. The most frustrating thing is that some religious people refuse to let gay people get married at all, even if it is not through their church1. I have the tolerance to accept that homosexuality may be considered a sin by some religions and wouldn’t expect them to marry gay people within their church. But to not let gay people get married everywhere is totally unfair.
I think the majority of people across the world are happy about the decision. There are always the few homophobes who pop up at times like this in an attempt to spread their homophobic nonsense. Some Americans reported that they were now going live in Canada, which seems a random statement given that Canada was one of the earliest countries to legalise gay marriage. Others suggested that gay people had moved forward on their mission to spread a gay agenda. I can’t believe I can even write such nonsense and not be making it up. People don’t just turn gay, it’s not a large recruitment drive. And even if people could turn gay, what would be the problem with that? It takes only the tiniest bit of analysis to realise that whole conversation is utter rubbish.
In the end though, as it usually tends to, love will win. I hope more and more countries will now proceed to legalise gay marriage. It’s another small step towards the utopia of a truly equal world.
Farewell 20SB
It is with great sadness that I bid farewell to the wonderful blogging community that is 20 Something Bloggers. The site is closing down at the end of June and I’m sad to see it go. I’ve been a member of 20SB since my 20th birthday, three and a bit years ago, and it is pretty much thanks to that site that this blog has been successful. But more than that, I’ve ‘met’ and talked with loads of interesting people from across the world through that site and have found all sorts of wonderful blogs that I regularly read. Hopefully the community will continue in some way through social networks but it is never going to be the same. Thanks for everything 20SB and I shall miss you dearly.
Insta-adventures
Unfortunately my life hasn’t been very exciting of late but I have at least taken a few decent Instagram shots that I thought would be nice to share.
IMG_20150527_202322 Rainbows are amazing. They are magnificent to look at and the science behind them completely blows my mind.
IMG_20150607_200707IMG_20150622_210003
A couple of decent photos of wildflowers locally. I think the first is some form of daisy and the second is a foxglove, or digitalis if you want to use the scientific name.
IMG_20150622_204921
This is a shot over the fishing lake which is really close to my house. It’s such a beautiful place and I am so lucky to live so close to it.
IMG_20150627_202728
A Grey Heron, when I first discovered my phone camera has a zoom on it. How I could have owned my phone for nearly a year and regularly use the camera yet not notice it has a zoom is beyond me.
IMG_20150628_132809
I’m quite proud of this photo. It’s rather arty yet at the same time effectively illustrates the fact that I got rained on a lot this morning.
20150628_122002
This is the stunning Winchester Cathedral. I visited the city this morning- it was where I went to university and I really enjoyed living there. It’s such a beautiful and lively place.
The Armed Forces
I fear this is a very rare example where I am a little controversial. Yesterday it was “Armed Forces Day” here in the UK, a day to celebrate the army, navy and air force. Personally I don’t think we should celebrate the read the armed forces. I recently read an article which discussed whether all soldiers are heroes2. Many people seem to consider all soldiers heroes. I disagree. Obviously, some soldiers do heroic things and usually they are rewarded for them. But just being a soldier doesn’t make you a hero.
I can’t understand why anyone would want to be a soldier. Their job is essentially to fight people. It’s 2015. Why are we still fighting? The human race has reached a point where we should be able to sort out disputes peacefully. But so often, we don’t. Now I know that’s not really the individual soldiers fault but they are a tiny part of the problem. We could have a peaceful world if everything refused to join an army. And I don’t just mean national armies, I include militant groups like ISIS in that. Now obviously, ISIS are bonkers and a terrible thing. But they are fighting for what they believe in, which is not really so different from what our national armies do. Ours are closer to the doing the right thing, but no way are they heroes. Choosing to fight for what you believe in, or more cynically what your superiors believe in, isn’t heroic. It’s stupid.
Well there’s nothing like finishing on a light note is there? As always, do share your thoughts on anything I’ve discussed here in the comments. I’ll be back in only a few days time for the second quarterly review of the year! See you then!
1– I am using “church” in the broad sense to mean religious building/organisation, rather than pointing at Christianity exclusively.
2- I would very much like to share the link to said article here, but I forgot to save it. Silly me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventure of the Great Reset

Image
In which I reflect and regroup... I am not going to lie, 2024 has been tough so far. You begin a year with such high hopes and sometimes the year decides to take those high hopes and crush them in the most brutal way.  I'm currently enjoying the tranquility of the summer holidays and a rest that has perhaps never felt quite so well-earned. Perhaps the best piece of advice I was given during the many training sessions I have had over the last few years is to make the most of the resets in your life. That might be small resets, as small as a few seconds in the middle of the day or they might be bigger resets like six weeks off work.  Part of this reset has been getting outside. The year so far has not been helped by the endless miserable weather. We always like to joke in the UK that it rains a lot but this year has taken that to the next level. We often think of climate change as meaning we will get hotter weather but it just means that the weather will change and will get more...
Read more

Best Picture 2024

Image
The 2024 Oscars ceremony is mere hours away and I've finally finished writing my annual post about this year's Best Picture nominees. This is my sixth year doing this and once again I've seen all the nominees. Let's take a look! American Fiction Thelonius 'Monk' Ellison, played by Jeffrey Wright who is perhaps best known as Felix Leiter in the Daniel Craig Bond films, is an intelligent African-American professor and writer whose high-brow books sell poorly. Frustrated, he writes a satire of "black" books which is unexpectedly taken by the publishing world to be a serious piece of literature. It's a hilarious film with Wright having lots of fun taking on Monk's alter-ego. At the same time though it's also a clever critique of the sort of media that is consumed by white people to make them feel better about racial issues and the film points out that black people can have normal lives beyond ghettos and gangs- the film itself also tells an ord...
Read more

1000 Miles

Image
Famous Scottish duo The Proclaimers once sang the words "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walks a thousand miles to fall down at your door". These lyrics are now part of my plan for 2019. Well, the falling down bit isn't part of the plan but with dyspraxia the likelihood of falling down at someone's door during the next twelve months is not out of the question. I have never tended to set traditional resolutions but I do love a challenge. # walk1000miles is a big challenge run by Country Walking  magazine. The rules are fairly flexible but the idea is simply to walk 1000 miles in a calendar year. 1000 miles is about the distance between the UK and Poland. Now I actually do a fair amount of walking and have hit my 10,000 daily step target every day for nearly three years now. Walking a total of 1000 miles would probably not be a huge challenge if I counted every bit of walking I did, including the many miles of chasing chi...
Read more