We have plenty of reasons to be cheerful

Dear reader, Life is good. Once we accept that death, the final arbiter, is part of life, then we can, with more clarity, accept that we are pretty fortunate. 

In this country, which is the only one I can speak of with any degree of knowledge, we have a good approach to death. The Catholic Church, for all its evils (and many of those evils are contrived by people and lawyers seeking financial retribution for, in many cases, real injustice but also perceived injustice) remains a source of comfort in death for many people. 

The GAA, for all its faults, knows how to support grieving families. The guard of honour is a much valued source of comfort. 

The Irish wake, despite the manner in which it has, very often, been portrayed in literature, drama and film, is a constant affirmation of support for the bereaved at a time of loss. 

There is life after death. For those who go on living there is consolation and succour in the support of family, friends and neighbours. Nowadays there are counsellors and therapists available to offer support, comfort and guidance to those who have lost faith. They are taking the place of the church and probably doing a passable job, but they have a long way to go to catch up with the wake.

Life is good. There is much strife, mayhem, death and destruction in places around a cruel and uncaring world. Places such as Gaza where the citizens are confronted daily with bombing, starvation and eviction. Places like Sudan, the second most populous country on the African continent, where more than half the population face famine and starvation on a daily basis. Places like Yemen where half the population is starving while the other half wage war often with sophisticated and costly weaponry. Places like Afghanistan where the religious madmen of the Taliban trample women underfoot and deny them the right to education and basic human liberties. Places like Ukraine where they fight back against Russian aggression, where the death toll continues to rise and nobody seems able to begin negotiations that would bring an end to the death and destruction. Maybe Hungary’s Victor Orban can show the way. The EU certainly won’t.

We have our own problems here, the main one being homelessness, closely followed by the issue of immigration. Both are problems that can be solved but they will take time. We could be critical and suggest the government could have been better prepared, could have planned ahead and could have had housing on tap for all who needed to be housed. But that would only have led to an even greater increase in immigrants seeking a place to live. There are no simple solutions... no matter what the politicians say.

Life is good. We bask in the afterglow of a very successful Olympics and currently rejoice with our para Olympians who do themselves, their families and friends proud in Paris. We continue to be amazed and amused by the incredible Paul O’Donovan who picked up his seventh world title in the lightweight single sculls in Canada. 

A dedicated fanatic, O’Donovan by-passed the Olympic homecoming celebrations to prepare for the world championships, and his victory was something of a damp squib simply because it was a foregone conclusion. Generally, Cork people are not known for their humility but O’Donovan is different class. The media don’t bother O’Donovan as he treats them and their painful questions with a certain amount of disdain.

It is a pity the media would not leave Rhasidat Adeleke alone. She finished fourth in the Olympics and in a recent Diamond League 400m race. In front of her to the finish line was a runner from Bahrain, Salwa Eid Naser who had served a two-year ban for doping. She was allowed run in the Olympics and was invited to run the 400m in the Diamond League meeting. She may well have run “clean” in both races, but the media raised the prospect of doping and used Adeleke to question the bona fides of Eid Naser.

It is not Adeleke’s job to question who should run against her. That is the job of the race organisers. Adeleke is in danger of becoming known as a whinger as she responds to the prompting of media types who are no ways slow to put words into her mouth. That same media will be to the forefront in painting her a whinger if she does not live up to the promise she undoubtedly has. Adeleke is a talented runner. She is on her way to becoming world class. She is Ireland’s foremost athlete. She should be allowed to run without having to generate controversy for the gratification of the media.

Life is good. It seems we did not have much of a summer weather-wise, which is hardly surprising when you consider that we don’t appear to know when summer commences or ends. In my time, the summer started in May, finished in July and August began the season of autumn. Nowadays, emboldened by confusion in the Met Office, people are choosing their own summer and June, July and August has taken over from May, June and July. 

Now, I couldn’t care less myself as I have no control over the weather, but I can control how the weather affects me. If it’s raining I can remain inside or, if the humour hits me, I can put on a coat and let the rain caress me. We need, occasionally, to be more patient with the weather. There’s no point in whinging.

There has been a lot of rain these past few months but it seems to me that the complaints about the bad summer far exceed the reality of the situation. You see we like to complain about the weather and to have a shot at the weathermen/women. If we get a morning with rain and an evening with sunshine we dismiss the sunshine and concentrate on the rain and we rarely give a thought to those regions around the globe who would give a fortune to get the rain that we have. 

We have half the world going up in flames with temperatures hitting record highs and we have the other half of the globe complaining about the lovely, soft rain. We are never happy. And perhaps the rain has had an unintended consequence (that’s the new phrase to explain when things don’t go as expected.) You will have noted that the rioters and protestors have been less in our faces of late. The arsonists seem to have gone on holidays. Perhaps their matches have got wet. The far right have slipped under the radar or maybe they have come to an arrangement with the Gardaí to suspend operations until the weather improves. One way or the other the silence is welcome.

Life is good. Down with the whingers.

Thought for the Day

Confucius says: Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.