Dadeville

Another day, another mass shooting in America. It's nothing new. Day after day the bullets fly. This time the finger of fate pointed at Dadeville, Alabama and a sixteenth birthday party. Tomorrow it could be... well anywhere it seems from "sea to shining sea". Maryland to Maine, Washington State to Wisconsin. It's truly, truly dreadful.

And what are The Republicans doing about the slaughter? They are making it worse. They have been making it easier to lawfully carry guns and they have been turning logic upside down - suggesting that the mass killings underline the efficacy of gun ownership. They often cite the second amendment to justify their resistance to any laws that might curtail gun ownership, leading to sensible checks and balances. They conveniently forget that the second amendment was hatched in very different times and was never intended to pave the way to mass killings.

A few minutes ago, the BBC reported this from Dadeville:-

Ben Hayes, a senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dadeville, told CNN: "We are going to pull through it well, we have a vigil soon, the community is coming together."

"We're going to sing, we're going to pray, and we're going to pray for these young people."

He added that "Nothing is going to change until we see hearts changed".

Presently, what happened in Dadeville remains unclear but I imagine that by tomorrow or the next day more light will be have been shed upon  this particular mass shooting and who was responsible for it.

I think I know who was responsible for it. It was the lawmakers from different levels who made no effort to bring in sensible gun control laws and looked the other way when the funeral corteges passed by. And they will be responsible for the next mass shooting and the next until they see the light and start to make changes that will save lives.

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The Night Of The 12th

 

I went to Chester this afternoon after exhausting the dogs on another long walk in Bishop’s Wood

I got there around 6pm and treated myself to pad Thai noodles at the Chester Market before cinema at the Storyhouse with friend Faisal , a day before he leaves for South Africa .

We went to see The Night Of The 12th an intelligent and unnerving version of a true crime case set in France where a country teenage girl Clara was burnt to death by an unknown attacker.

The case is taken over by new police chief Yohan (Bastien Bouillion ) who is an odd, intense character who finds verbal support somewhat of a challenge . His second in command Marceau ( Bouli Lanners) is a burnt out, about to be divorced, cop in so need of counselling support from his boss so things are not looking good as many suspects are unearthed but no progress is made with arrests .

The film is a fascinating journey looking at an in-depth , forensic but intimately unsuccessful investigation    and it explores the terrible toll murder investigations actually has on its human participants , namely the police team involved, especially as no result is actually found.

Bouillan and Lanners

It’s a long story but I gave Faisal a chased kiss goodbye 

at the end of the evening 

What a story

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Mindful

 I was never one for houseplants.

True, I have an aspidistra who is at least 40 years old and a flowering cactus almost that age , but these two are surviving more from luck than from design. 

Since lockdown I have collected houseplants and the best bit of advice I have had looking after them came from the postman, who one day complemented me on my collection.

When there’s a warmish rainstorm , bout all of your plants outside for a long shower

It’s labour intensive , but it doesn’t half clean and nurture them

So that’s what I have done this morning. Set the plants in the rain and then returned them one by one when they were wet and really green again.

I know repetitive and somehow quite mindful.

This respective, mindless behaviour is a useful mechanism to employ when stress is in your life. I’ve always used it at work when things got too much to handle. I’ve gone to the drugs room to clean the drugs trays or move the laundry around or clean the dressing trolleys.

Washing dishes is a mindful chore too

It’s done with the above view of plants and flying gull and of pretty crockery and moving the plates and the knives from hot water to cold rinse let’s your mind unwind and slow down. 

My grandmother hated ironing clothes, she said that it “ slowed down the brain” 

Now it’s therapy

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