Condors! And a Flare-up

The Self-isolating Bird Club was  discussing a bird defending its nest - forcefully - the other day, which caused Chris to mention that he had been attacked by many birds in his time as a naturalist.   Which reminded  me in my turn that, even though I am not a naturalist, I had been attacked by a seagull. And Col reminded me that Shadow and I had been attacked by mynah birds while out walking in Dhahran.  One of them parted poor Shadow's hair.  He looked so surprised. Obviously the mynah had a little one on the ground and the valiant parent was defending it from wolf and giant.

The seagull presumably had young on the ground too. I was on my own, knocking at a door, and it went for me. I had to run - well I say run, it was my first outing on the doors in the wake of my first knee op - a tentative try-out - so it was more of an undignified hobble, with my Watchtower magazine over my head.  I took refuge under a tree while it prowled and growled for a bit until it felt I had learnt my lesson.

I am assuming it had a young one on the ground, but maybe it had a religious objection?

Anyway, I said I was fairly safe at the moment bird-attack-wise, given I am not allowed out.  Unless, I foolishly added, I got carried away by a giant bird while I was out on the balcony.

That gave Himself a chance to speculate about the size of Condor that would be required. I think he is now up to Dinosaur.  Well, what can I say?  If he scored the goal, it was me who went and set it up.

So far Thursday has been taken up by the arrival of my new Ears, much puzzling over the Handbook - how on earth do we fly these things? - and trying to sort out our next two on-line Waitrose deliveries, to secure the slot.  They ARE both propositions for Wittgenstein, as Basil Fawlty might have said.

I am trying to read through what I hope is final draft of my next novel, but Thursday has not been a day for concentrating on anything.

And now its Friday - and what have I done.  Very little, but unfortunately I am in a fair bit of pain from an arthritis flare-up.  Its not as bad as it can be, but its making walking very difficult.  And in fact it became horrendous and we both had a night of torment.  Its my left leg/hip, plus my right knee is swollen and painful. 

It was back on the bedpan.

I wish they were not so cavalier about painkilling and would give me something that would actually deal with the intense pain of these flare-up. The agony goes on relentlessly, hour after hour, and codeine makes no difference whatsoever.

I had to pray to Jehovah during the night and put my faith in his promise that he will not let things go beyond what we can bear.

We want everyone to know their Creator and to know how to call on him for help.  So I have been thinking that, as we can no longer knock at your doors, maybe I could call at your virtual door and offer you a Bible study - just a tiny bit at at time?

It would begin something like this:

First, a simple question:   What Is the Good News from God?

And the answer from our Creator himself is that he wants us to enjoy life on earth. He created the earth and everything on it because he loves mankind. Soon he will act to provide a better future for people in every land. He will relieve mankind of all the causes of suffering.

And then we would read Jeremiah 29:11, which says:   “‘For I well know the thoughts that I am thinking toward you,’ declares Jehovah, ‘thoughts of peace, and not of calamity, to give you a future and a hope.""

Thoughts of peace and not of calamity - to give us a future and a hope.

Then I will leave you with two questions to think about, if you wish to.

Has any human government, even with the best will in the world, ever succeeded in eliminating violence, disease, or death?

What kind of government would we need to achieve this?  The good news is that there is one.