Someone once said that the only difference between an optimist and a pessimist was that an optimist believes that they live in the best of all possible worlds and that a pessimist knows that they live in the best of all possible worlds. I am not sure which of these I am, but I do dream of a world where the most vulnerable in society are not treated with cruelty, contempt and total disrespect by others simply because they think they can get away with it.
This has been quite a difficult week. Have a look at the link below and watch the video. It makes for uncomfortable viewing, but I think it is important for people to see it. Unfortunately the BBC's iPlayer doesn't work here so I will have to wait until I am back in the UK to see the full version. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13617196 . Couldn't happen here? We all think that, but it does; again and again.
Patrick Worth, founding chair of the Canadian Joint Task Force on Deinstitutionalisation (2010) wrote thus:
“Institutions deny you a life - they take away your ability to know and connect to your family and your community - they deny you the opportunity for friendships. Institutions take away the ability to have responsibility for your own actions. An institution is a place where people are not permitted to dream.”
If they are not permitted to dream, maybe we need to dream for them. Maybe just dreaming is not enough?
Weather
Continues to be brilliant. However, the clouds roll in quickly and 9 times out of 10 bring heavy rain and storms. The video below was taken today out of the back window - luckily the clouds disappeared with no rain.
Bike Adventures
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| You might need to click and enlarge to spot the dreaded no bikes sign |
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| Included for two reasons. 1, it's all downhill to Tirnaveni from here. 2, you can see how far up we are from the flat underside of the clouds. |
I decided to cycle to Medias (should be a diacritic under the last "s" which makes it pronounces as Mediash). After about 15 km of totally uphill cycling there was a sign indicating that bikes were not allowed. This was just at the point when I left Mures County and entered Sibiu County. To be fair, the quality of the road became much better in Sibiu so maybe they simply didn't want any messy squashed cyclists on their roads. There is an alternative route, but I didn't have time to double back and add an hour to my journey time. On the plus side I freewheeled 15 km back home - very refreshing in 30 degrees C heat (that's 86 degrees F for non-metric people).
Again, as I write this, Olivia is bouncing around attacking everything in her path (including my feet!) and being a typical 6 week old kitten. Very healthy and very strong. We have had one offer of a home already - but we do need to check it out properly. We bumped into her vet in town the other day. "Oh, I haven't seen you for ages", he said,"I'd assumed he (she) had died". Vaccinations are due in two weeks.
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| Two weeks old. Blind and deaf. Broken leg, wounded stomach and hernia from being thrown out of a car and run over. Wet cold and hungry - very hungry |
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| Six weeks old. Running, jumping, biting, scratching. Oddly fashionable in fake fur - and absolutely adorable. Still hungry! |
Art for Art's sake
Click on these to make them bigger. Some of my favorite pieces of artwork from this week.
Te Pup
Paul
