Disturbing Media Interest

I have simply got to comment on the tragedy of Joanna Yeates’ murder and the arrest of Mr Jefferies. As Mr Yeates said, the end of the story is so terrible that really there is nothing else to be done – I hope the family believes in a positive afterlife and knows for sure that God does not make mistakes.

What is frightening me at this time is the media machine and the way it is digging and printing in a frenzy about a man who is described as a ‘private person’ with no dubious history at all. It frightens me because if the same thing happened to me (I am a landlord and an ex English teacher and a bit weird) I’m sure that after they’d dug enough through the dregs of my life they’d lock me up and throw away the key whether I’d been charged, tried and sentenced or not. The force of our often quite stupid police units has more dubious background than this apparently ‘upstanding pillar of the community’. I’m not an upstanding pillar. Doesn’t it worry you too, dear reader? The media is becoming more of an old gossip every day. I wouldn’t want to talk to it either as I am sure that anything I said would be distorted.

When they release this poor man and then one day someone finds him dead by his own hand, will the media blame it on the media, or on his interest in, not punks or goths or drugs, but a classical Pre-Raphaelite poet?

I pray for the family and the loved ones of Joanna and for Christopher Jefferies and for whoever perpetrated this terrible crime.

And..

Should there be next of kin approval for the individual who wants to check out? I don’t think so, but perhaps the process should allow for a part that the next of kin may opt to play in this last scene. Should there be a list of hoops to jump through? Perhaps, but I cannot think of any.

For those who believe that this is a selfish option, I would like to know on what grounds this view can be based other than personal. Any personal view is equal in strength to any other.

The time has come for the world to address issues that it never addresses. The world news is always unsurprising, as if it all goes through the filter of public expectation before deliverance. I feel as if I live in another dimension but have to keep up the pretence of living in this one. The effect is divisive because if there are others out there who feel as I do, the shield of collective belief prolongs and strengthens the separation.

free to create but not to destroy

To be or not to be. This is not a question or even a choice in today’s society. I did ‘being’ until my work was complete and then I tried not being, but the forces at work in the world prevented me from fulfilling my intention. So since then I have kept a sharp look out for signs and messages that might indicate why I am still being when I have finished. It would be in the interest of the planet to have one less carbon footprint, one less potential carrier of diseases, one less consumer. I tried my level best to do what I could as a way-shower and before that I took my direction from parents and conventional rules. I bore a son (and he bores me - joke). Strange when you think about it that there should be so many rules and mandates about living and dying but nothing that simply addresses one’s sane and sensible wish to check out from say, age 60 if one wishes. It could be so organised and generous and timely. Why are the powers that be so fearful of this option? The rule to live is common to all religions and governments as far as I know. As the song says: ‘suicide is painless’ – it’s just hard to carry it out alone, without professional help.

Dignitas would help if they could so long as I join their organisation. But as from the spring of last year (or was it this year?) the Swiss government made it illegal to help anyone with mental illness which includes the wish to die! This must mean that they will only assist in the suicide of those who would want to live if their bodies wanted to.

It involves a human decision to create life, so why should it not involve a human decision, my decision to extinguish it?

Snowfell

snow fell last night

snowy gnomes

hungry starlings

waiting their turn

frozen pampus and birdbath

view from office out to sea

cold paws