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Child Abuse… Again. Every time it happens, we rant in outrage or bow our heads and mumble about the inevitability of it all.   But neither response provides any relief for the powerlessness we feel.    The outraged, campaign and raise money to track down the perpetrators. For the bowed heads, it’s yet another reason to lock up children […]

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the enormous poster of Clint Eastwood behind the real Clint Eastwood pretty much summed up the state we’re in.  We think our identity is who we really are. We also think things were better forty years ago – when the good guy was in charge and the […]

There’s true and there’s truth. True is a bunch of facts – a news story rather than a new story.  In the old days, life was very black and white so facts were an adequate component of a story. Our moral compass was clear.  Things were right or wrong.  The strong protect the weak.  We […]

The Dalai Lama once famously said “The world will be saved by the Western Woman”. This usually provokes one of two responses in women. 1.  Holy Crap…that means me.  Now I have to do something.  But what? I’m not ready. I’m certainly not capable. And it’s far too difficult. 2.  Does my ego look big […]

So Morgan Freeman, the man who has played God a few times, has told the Huffington Post that he believes “we invented God”.  This isn’t a new concept.  Voltaire said exactly the same thing in the 18th century (“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him”).  And thus, with a fancy […]

I probably fell in love with my first boyfriend because he smoked french cigarettes.   Not just any french cigarettes – Gitanes.  I can still remember the packet, moody blue with a flamenco dancer fashioned from a plume of smoke.  It seemed to embody all the characteristics I had projected onto him – free spirited, […]

What is it about impending disaster that draws us like a moth to a flame? If we look at the world around us – land, sea and air polluted beyond recognition; corruption in banking, politics and the media; senseless wars; terrorism; the iniquitous distribution of wealth – it’s easy to recognise a civilisation in its […]

It’s Easter – a significant time of death and rebirth. A time that warrants a suitable ritual. So, what have we come up with? Not much, apart from the frenzied supermarket shop, the traffic jam, and the mainlining of chocolate. If we think Christmas has lost all meaning, there isn’t much hope for Easter. Jesus’s birthday […]

What are you giving up for Lent? This question always takes me right back to schooldays in the convent. Competition starts at an early age, so Lent became an excuse to think of ever more elaborate and inventive ways of becoming special to Jesus. “Chocolate? That’s so easy, I heard Sophie’s getting up an hour […]

Have you seen the High Street lately? In case you’ve been living in a virtual world for the past few weeks, let me set the scene.  Every window has had a makeover. The confectionary shop is an explosion of heart shaped chocolates and red ribbons. The book store has replaced all the celebrity autobiographies with […]