What a day! It's like half seven in the morning and the sun is shining it's warm and fuzzy, I'm listening to some good sounds from Chris Rice on my computer while I'm typing, just had a breakfast of tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon...... loads of bacon. Life is good. It's easy to feel benevolent/graceful/merciful/kind/generous etc when I'm feeling like this. 

Sometimes it's enough to enjoy the moment. So that is what I'm doing I'm revelling in this moment as the Good Lord created it. Reddy-gold sunrises, barley bowing it's head in the field as the Spirit of The Lord moves over it as He did all those endless years ago.

The same breath of wind washes over me as I stand with eyes wide in awe and full of tears of joy as I am privileged to to watch the dance of God as He chooses to to include me in this moving tableau of interaction between Creator and creat-ed. Wow what a day!

There is a growing feeling of dis-satisfaction among ordinary folk in this country. (UK)

It is more than merely a whim or a passing idea in the minds of the few. It is a mounting emotion that is akin to unexplainable anger or resentment. The ‘mood’ if you will of the general population is getting fouler, people are less forgiving of little wrongs done to them than they were once inclined to be, men and women too quickly get into arguments which grow into fights with actual violence the consequence. Maybe even the ‘ladish’ behaviour that some social commentators remark on is something to do with this almost imperceptible building of emotion stemming from frustration.

Where, one might ask, does this exasperation and frustration find it’s source? Let me tell you what I believe.

When I was growing up if I did something wrong I was punished, one way or another, I wasn’t happy about it but I wasn’t surprised either because that is what happened to a person when you broke the rules. One was punished. If I saw a man stealing and told a policeman I expected the offender to be caught and punished because that is how civilised society administers justice. Justice is one of those ethereal concepts that modern thinkers have seen fit to make as complicated as is possible, philosophers have even succeeded in making some of us believe that justice for me is entirely subjective and isn’t necessarily justice for you.

If, when I got older, I came across a gross miscarriage of justice then I believed in the ability of law to right that wrong, and if it didn’t do it at a local or provincial level then I could move up until I found an honourable group who could be expected to be beyond reproach.

If someone in a local government department was feathering their own nest or even playing fast and loose with the voters money I always expected to be able to go to some higher body and protest it and at least be heard.

I no longer have those naïve ideas. Now in the words of that Billy Bragg song I expect that “the rich keep getting richer aint it all a feckin shame” I and millions like me have no faith that the law will look after me, not when the top officers are being prosecuted for crimes. There is no point in complaining about hospital executives wasting thousands of pounds on oak doors for richly appointed conference rooms because whom do I complain to? Who does not have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo in such circumstances? I have come to believe that above a certain level of management it is all about ‘what can I get out of this’ so why would this management want to change anything…… don’t rock the boat or draw attention to yourself…….. Getting hot under the collar.

So if the ‘management’ aren’t going to help and the law feels it’s ‘not in the public interest’ why not go to the union? Well the answer to that is obvious. When the first unions came about it was in response to general injustice being carried out on working people by ‘Captains of Industry’. They were needed and they did a good job because the worker was being taken advantage of. Well as time progressed Unions became less about righting wrongs and looking after the rights of workers and more about greed. It was only natural that eventually those same captains of industry would use their greed against them. It is far easier to have one or two men or women to deal with than a whole raft of delegates, it is also easier for the bosses to bring them on board with favoured offices and fancy titles and pay increases during the term that they are representing the body of people. If management is paying the union bosses who, really, are the union bosses representing……….. More frustration and annoyance.

So if everything else goes wrong then at least you can go and see your local elected representative and get them to mount an enquiry into dodgy dealings. Oh no sorry that avenue is also closed because the politicians, with lamentably few exceptions, are too busy working how they can do their other job as well as the one that the tax payer is paying them to do. At the same time these poor people have got to work out how best to frame a request for money to pay for the mortgage on aunt Sally’s flat. I mean the poor old politician needs to get it right in case he sells it as his second home and doesn’t make enough money on the free house to pay for the holiday home in Jersey. Bless. Funny I used to be a policeman and if I ever had time spare then it was because I wasn’t doing my job properly, how do these people expect the average plebeian in the street to believe they are doing their job to the best of their ability if they are able to do a second or third job. It could be said of all people paid by the taxpayer, GP’s surgeons, dentists, judges. How is it possibly right or ethical for them to have two jobs or sometimes three!...... Is the steam rising yet

Well there is at least one body above those crooked old politicians that we in the UK can turn to, a last bastion of correctness. The House of Lords. I mean these public spirited men and women don’t even get paid a salary. Who am I kidding the ability to claim with almost impunity up to £174 a night might not be called a salary but I would swop half those allowances for my full salary any day……. Feel the tension rising inside me.

Then to add to the general feeling that the ‘game ain’t straight’, we have ridiculous scenes of people being paid a fortune to do a job looking after the savings and investments of your average Joe. Then when they get it wrong they aren’t sacked (you know the way you or I might be if we did our job consistently badly), no instead my money bails them out of their mess and then they turn round and say well 2009 wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be- we only lost 3 billion pounds instead of 4 billion we deserve a bumper pay bonus. “Shame about all those people looking to extend their credit to make their businesses stay afloat but hey I’m ok Jack.”………………….. Getting positively peeved now.

Do those who pretend to give a damn about running this country not understand that this growing anger and resentment needs some sort of release, a vent if you like. I forsee in the not too distant future an uprising of people who are going to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, it isn’t one particular thing it’s the myriad unjust things that will tip people over the edge.

I feel like ‘Wolfie Smith’ from a bygone era shouting ‘Power to the People!!’ And so I close with the words from that Pink Floyd Classic Animals; the track called Sheep:

“When cometh the day we lowly ones,
Through quiet reflection, and great dedication
Master the art of karate,
Lo, we shall rise up,
And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water.”

Hi. 

Just finished reading the above and I was completely blown away by the way that the Author manages to keep up the intensity of the experience and the desire to keep turning pages. I have been taken on a roller-coaster of an emotional ride as I now go away to assess what his means in my life and how I need to forgive some people, living and dead. It does for Forgiveness what "What's so Amazing About Grace" did for Grace. Please read and enjoy and maybe change a little <http://theshackbook.com/>