The Week that was: health, work, VIPS and Internet

Last week was a mixed bag, not memorable which is probably why I began reminiscing about my journeys in the USA.
It was the last week of winter (we always say Spring begins on September 1 here) but it has been unusually hot and the first bushfires have begun south of Sydney.
As is common for me, the change of season brings head colds. I do not remember ever being sick in Winter but rarely go through Spring unscathed. My last attack of flu (before I began having vaccinations) was on September 11, 2001. I have even suffered head colds when travelling to the Northern hemisphere in April/May (although I still blame George Bush)

So, as I sat watching my favourite TV program, Midsomer Murders last Sunday night, I felt the sore throat developing and the nose beginning to act like a running tap.
Fortunately I dosed myself up before going to bed. I had already planned to miss hiking on Monday and garden instead.  Monday was cold and showery, more like the winter it should be,  so I spent most of the day lying down, keeping warm and reading.

However I was still not the best on Tuesday when I had to go to work as I had promised 3 days last week, the most days I have worked in one week for over two years.  At least the sore throat was gone and it did not appear to be developing into the dreaded swine flu. I was much better by the Wednesday and thankfully it has not moved to my chest.

Work was very strange. The Principal closed the library for 2 days because something special was to happen on the Wednesday.  We had to tidy shelves and move furniture but all we knew was that it involved the rollout of laptop computers to all students in year 9 which our Commonwealth Government has promised as one strategy to fight the Global recession.

On Wednesday morning we were invaded by reporters and TV cameras and finally the Principal arrived with the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard who is also Commonwealth Minister for Education. With her was the State Minister for Education, Verity Firth, the Commonwealth Minister for Financial Services, Chris Bowen, who happens to be the local member and the State Minister for Finance and various other things, Joe Tripodi, who is also the local member.

So now we knew why there had been so much excitement especially by those in power within the school.  Only Tripodi came over to speak with me. He was obviously bored and went outside frequently to take phone messages.  He is a repulsive character who is known as a power broker, wheeling and dealing in politics, so speaking with him will not remain  memorable. Perhaps he thought I lived in his electorate, I don't.

The Deputy Prime Minister did smile and thank us as she swept out. I do like her very much. The photo shows her in the centre with one of the students. Tripodi is also in the frame. Not much was actually on TV. It is old news and the Death of Senator Edward Kennedy led the bulletins as the news was just breaking here in Australia.

Finally the most frustrating part of the week has been my Internet service which has been continually failing in a most haphazard way. Fortunately I could read emails at work and even some blogs although I had to be choosy in what I read.

I have had long phone calls with my ISP and 2 of the 4 technicians were almost impossible to understand. I felt like asking them what the weather was like in Mumbai. The most helpful had a strong American accent but at least I could understand him. The modem lights were all working but we finally decided it was causing the problem and not the line. So I have purchased a new modem for $90 (glad of the extra work this week) and things seem to have improved greatly. I feel most uncomfortable when my internet connection is down, quite cut off from the world which probably does not say much for my social interactions.

No work this week and although today is cold again, it promises to gradually warm so the garden must be attacked. The Spring blossoms and bulbs are appearing everywhere.

Travels in the USA

I have just posted to Germany an application for tickets and accommodation for the Oberammergau Passion Play in September 2010.
I attended the play in 1980 and on the train from Munich to Oberammergau I met Kathy and Peter, a couple from Johannesburg.  I travelled part of the Romantic Road with them and we kept up some correspondence, mainly Christmas cards. They visited Sydney twice in the 90's and I had dinner with them each time.
Early this year they asked would I join them on a reunion to next year's play. It is only held every 10 years. After some hesitation due to finances I agreed but sadly my emails to them for the last 3 or so months have had no reply. I have decided to go ahead and book anyway.
Perhaps I might buy a round the world ticket, as in 1980, and visit the USA again.

I spent 4 months in Europe in 1974, another 8 weeks in 1976 and 6 weeks in 1980. On that last journey I decided to return home via the States.
3 days were spent in New York which I hated at the time, it was a scary place (much better in 2007).  I did not go out after dark. I did the usual sights: round Manhattan ferry, Empire State, United Nations, a bus tour, Greenwich Village.

From there I travelled by train to Boston which was much more enjoyable. The taxi driver who took me to the station in New York told me I was mad to travel by train but I love sitting in a train watching the scenery pass by. The trip was through the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to Massachusetts. I remember visiting Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill and the Old North Church and enjoyed the streets and squares. I felt much more comfortable than in New York.

I then flew across the States to San Francisco, California, at that time the mecca for all gay men.
However my wallet was stolen in a gay bar that first Saturday night. Sadly it included my Amex card. Sunday was a very frugal day (I had left some cash in my hotel room but still I ate at MacDonalds) but I was given cash by Amex on the Monday and I took a ferry ride around Alcatraz and a bus tour across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Muir Woods.  I flew home on the Tuesday via a stop in Hawaii (planes travel non-stop these days).  .

I did not travel overseas again for 17 years.

In 1997 I had a new career as a Teacher-Librarian and decided to attend the conference of the American Library Association in San Francisco. I spent 3 nights again in San Francisco, mainly at the conference, but did have company for a night out in the Castro and had another cable car ride to Fisherman's Wharf. I watched part of the seemingly endless Gay Pride march on the Sunday.
Being a bit daring I hired a car on the Monday to drive to Yosemite. I had driven in Europe in the 70's but was much older now and found left hand drive very scary. A librarian friend from LA drove up and stayed with me at a B&B in Yosemite. He insisted I drive to dinner the first night but decided he would make a better job of it the next day as he showed me the sights and we completed some walks in the wonderful scenery.
I managed to drive back to San Francisco, in fact my nerves improved immensely and, trying to find Emeryville Railway station where I wanted to leave my bag,  I made a u-turn and chased a bus which had the station name as its destination.  However I was glad to hand back the car and join the Coast Starlight express for a marvellous 24 hours to Seattle, Washington. Even though it ran many hours late, I fell in love with Amtrak. I walked on the platform in Eugene, Oregon.

A fellow teacher, contacted on the net, showed me around Seattle and being July 4, we finished the day by watching the fireworks in a park.
I then travelled by hydrofoil to Vancouver Island and spent a week at a Teacher-Librarian conference in Vancouver before visiting the Canadian Rockies.
On the way home I spent several more hours in San Francisco, enough time to buy several pairs of jeans.

In 1999 I again headed over the Pacific, mainly to attend another conference this time in Birmingham, Alabama.  I flew into Los Angeles and my Yosemite companion picked me up and drove me around the city: the beaches, Beverly Hills and Hollywood. I spent the night at his home before flying onto New Orleans, Louisiana.

I loved New Orleans and decided I must take my sister, who is a Jazz fan, there.
I took a river cruise to the Zoo, returned by street car, visited the Aquarium and, of course, wandered the French Quarter. Just 2 nights and I flew onto Birmingham for the 4 day Conference.
At the end of the conference I flew with a change of planes in St Louis, Missouri to Detroit, Michigan where I was met by a librarian with whom  I had been corresponding for a few years. She met me with her family (in case I was an axe murderer:-) and after having dinner with her mother-in-law in Detroit and a brief city tour, we drove to her home in Bronson. They were very hospitable but I did feel like a prize exhibit as I was shown off around Bronson and Coldwater and even taught two lessons to classes about to start a study of Australia. They drove me across Michigan to South Haven on the lake. I was driven to Kalamazoo where I said goodbye and caught the train to Chicago, Illinois passing through Indiana.


I had less than 24 hours in Chicago which was clearly not enough. I did go up the Sears Tower.  However I had another memorable time with Amtrak on the California Zephyr across the US for 2 nights and days. Through Iowa, Nebraska and into Colorado. I briefly alighted in Denver, Then to Utah. It was midnight in Salt Lake City so I did not see much, in fact nothing at all. I took another brief walk at a stop in Nevada before arriving for another visit in San Franciso. Just one night and day there before the flight home.

We now move onto 2007. As I said, I had made a resolution to take my sister to New Orleans and decided to tie this in with a visit to my favourite city of all, Paris. So I was again off on a round the world flight.

Back to Los Angeles, which we had both visited and not a favourite of either of us but a place to recover from jet lag. We stayed near the Airport but, believing we must try to adjust quickly, on the afternoon we arrived took a local bus to the beach at Santa Monica. The sea air blew away some of the fogginess of the brain.

The next day I had booked a tour to the Getty Museum and this was an excellent choice. Changed our whole perspective of Los Angeles, stunning building, great setting and excellent art work.

We flew onto New Orleans, apprehensive of what it might be like after Katrina. However we need not have worried. We stayed out in the Garden District but sadly the street car had not yet been repaired so we made many bus journeys to the French Quarter. Highlights were a culinary walking tour of the famous restaurants (we were the only ones with an excellent guide), dinner at Muriel's on Jackson, self guided walk in Garden District and a swamp tour including an unscheduled tour through some areas devastated by Katrina.

After 3 nights we flew via Charlotte to Charleston, South Carolina. I had to make a choice between Charleston and Savannah. A carriage ride was a great introduction the first afternoon. The next day we met friends who live in Birmingham and who had driven over to show us around. We visited the Middleton Plantation and the Aitken Rhett House in the town.
They drove us to the station the next morning and we boarded the Palmetto for the trip to Washington. This was not as memorable as my earlier Amtrak journeys especially as a fatal accident delayed us 4 hours and it was about Midnight into Washington. We, however, glimpsed the scenery of both South and North Carolina as well as Virginia.
Two full days in Washington, D.C. involved Arlington, Maryland, The Library of Congress, The Mall and an evening tour of the monuments on day one followed by many of the memorials again in our own time, the White House and the Post Office Tower on the second morning. A subway trip and a long walk found us at the National Cathedral in the second afternoon.

Then back on the train to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately we both came down with head colds as we left Washington. I will always blame George Bush.  However we managed a very interesting walking tour around Philadelphia and a wonderful dinner with more internet friends who blog here. We attended the Eucharist at St Mark's with Davis and had an otherwise lazy Sunday dealing with the colds.

Finally Monday on the train to New York passing through New Jersey.  As I wrote, I found it much more pleasant this second time round, it was my sister's first visit to the East Coast. I enjoyed travelling on the subway. We walked in Central Park, did a half circle cruise, took in Grand Central Station and Times Square.  Tuesday involved the Empire State, Battery Park, Trinity Church, Little Italy and the Guggenheim Museum (disappointing) In the evening we took in a Broadway show - Legally Blonde -  before visiting the Top of the Rock.
Our final day was the Episcopal Cathedral of St John the Divine, the Museum of Natural History, Greenwich Village and Soho before travelling with luggage by subway out  to JFK airport and the overnight flight to Paris.
Therefore I have visited just half the states, though some very briefly or only seen from the train. 

So now I will consider making my 5th journey to the US in the second half of next year. I am most interested in visiting more of New England in Autumn (Fall) and perhaps Eastern Canada.
However no decisions needed until early in the New Year.

One person's rubbish is another's treasure

This week is the yearly council cleanup in our suburb. I have lived here nearly 28 years and have a very large enclosed area under my house due to the slope of the land. Consequently I have gathered a lot of stuff that might be useful one day. It cannot travel to NZ with me. I worried that it might be more than the amount allowed. I need not have worried. There has been a procession of trucks and trailers up and down the street all weekend. As fast as I put stuff out it disappeared. The only major item left is a single mattress. It is in very good condition but understandable even charities will not take mattresses. I do have 2 single beds still under the house plus one in the house but will try to sell them before giving them to St Vinnies. My own double bed should have been replaced years ago, it will be scrapped when I leave. I did take old paint tins and other chemicals to a special collection a few months ago. I put out an old car battery which may not have been taken by council but someone else has taken it.

I have had less luck trying to sell boots I bought in the 70's on Ebay. A pair I bought in Madrid in 1980 did go the second time for just $10 plus postage. Hardly worth the effort. A better pair I bought in Rome in 1976 are now up for the second time plus some black high heeled boots bought in Australia. Also a grey leather jacket. I will try to sell a motor bike helmet and also some Marklin model trains. I always intended making use of them again when retired but will never find the time. The track which was rusty has gone in the bin.

I do not know what to do with thousands of coloured slides taken in the 60's to 80's There are drawers of them. I cannot bear to part with them.

A New Rector for St James

It was a bit of a shock to receive an email from our Rector, Father Peter, announcing his departure in November. Personally I have never really taken to him, it may be his English reserve. However it is always a worry when you consider that any new Rector has to be approved by Bishop Robert Forsyth and Archbishop Peter Jensen. I do not trust either man as far as I could throw him and my continual prayer is to keep them, far away from me.

In the meantime our Assistant Priest, Father John, is to be Locum tenens. I would be overjoyed if he became our new Rector.
Hopefully it will all be irrelevant to me as I move to Dunedin but I am still concerned for the other parishioners, including my sister. I am also concerned that St James, King Street continue to be an inclusive church within the city of Sydney.
Prayers requested

Update

I spent 2 nights with my sister and was able to do the shopping and allow her to spend most of the time with her foot up. Her foot is much better now and the swelling has gone down. She can get around quite well using Mum's old walking stick. Luckily it is her left wrist that is broken. I left her several microwave meals to keep her going and a lady who lives in the same block brought a big container of soup.
I am no cook. We had a baked dinner my sister had previously put in the freezer one night. And I went to KFC the other night.
I will visit by train after church on Sunday and drive down again on Monday evening so as to take her back to the hospital on Tuesday morning for replastering once the swelling has gone down. I have promised to drive down the following Friday and take her for other pre-arranged medical appointments. I will probably stay the night and pick my brother-in-law up at the airport on the Saturday. Then he can take over.

My wallet arrived in the post without the $150 but at least everything else. Apparently someone had dropped it into a letter box.
Thankfully I have avoided the hassle of getting a new driving licence. I, of course, am in the process of getting new credit/debit cards which had been cancelled and rearranging regular payments from them.

I had been asked to work 2 days next week and 2 days the following week. I have now received an email asking me to work 3 days in the following week so that will replace the money lost. However, all this is further delaying the preparation of my house for sale.

I have closed my Facebook account. Reading that people are going to bed and receiving hugs etc are just not my scene, no offence meant.

I must be a curmudgeon. In the two days at my sister's home the phone rang more than it would ring all year at my home. I get more calls from charity groups (commercial phone calls are blocked and illegal here) than from friends. My phone might go several weeks without ringing.

If Only

Yesterday was a terrible day.

My walking group had a choice of an out of town easy walk along an old rail line with a 2 hour train journey to get there (the route I took last week). I would have preferred this but my sister had to take her husband to the airport so we instead went on an inner city walk, The Rocks, the oldest section of Sydney. We actually could have gone on the other as my sister had a quick trip home from the airport. I have often visited the Rocks. We did have an interesting tour of the oldest Catholic church in the city led by one of the priests. The rest of the day was listening to one of our group reading long explanations of the history at different points. I hate standing around and knew a lot of it anyway so was bored stiff.

In the afternoon, I decided to leave early and catch an earlier train home than the rest of the group, my sister came with me.

The shortest way to the station was across a busy road leading onto the Harbour Bridge. My sister suggested we go a slightly longer way and use a pedestrian crossing.
As we went that way a man approached with a dog on a leash. The dog ran one side of my sister, the man the other and my sister sprawled on the ground. She had a cut lip and cut hands but a very sore left wrist and right foot. A nearby cafe brought a glass of water. I hailed a taxi and we got her into it and said to go to her house. She felt terrible so I asked the taxi to go to the Emergency at her local hospital instead. As we arrived my sister said she did not think she could get into the emergency. I paid the taxi driver and in my haste apparently dropped my wallet.

We did make it into the emergency and the woman on the desk told me to bring my wife to the window. At that moment my sister went extremely white. This was probably a good thing as nurses ran to her, her blood pressure had dropped alarmingly so a trolley was brought and we were quickly inside. Fortunately her condition improved.

However even then it was 3 hours before she got to x-ray and a bed in the emergency ward. Having a bed does not mean an actual bed, still on the trolley, but now at a station with a nurse etc. rather than in the corridor. Emergency corridors are awful as traffic accident victims come in and are raced to surgery passed you, also elderly patients who speak little English are screaming and crying as no-one can understand them.

I rang and cancelled my credit cards but there are so many other items including driving licence and pension card, I think about $65 cash. I had put the $30 change from taxi into my pocket as I rushed to help my sister. I rang my brother-in-law now in Queensland about to take a yacht to sea.

6 hours after arriving we were still waiting on the doctor to report. It was after 8 and I could not find if they were going to release her so I would take her home and stay at her place or keep her in. We decided that if I left they would have to keep her as she had no-one at home. So I arrived home at 11pm. Needed to find my valium type tablets, which I have not used since I left full time work 7 years ago, in order to sleep.

Now at 7am I rang my sister and she has told me she is in a proper ward with wrist in plaster, foot is improving. I will drive down now, probably in peak hour traffic although she has told me not to hurry, and take her home I will probably have to stay with her a day or two.

If only we had gone on the other walk.
If only I had been prepared to stay with the whole tour and not leave early.
If only we had risked crossing with the traffic.
If only that man had kept better control of his dog.
If only I had been less panicked as I left the taxi.

IF ONLY.

Rest of Travels

Continuing my journey, I travelled for 5 hours by bus across to the coast. We stopped for lunch in the town of Inverell and then, having gradually climbed the western slopes to the top of the Tablelands at Glen Innes (1062 metres), we drove down the steep eastern escarpment into the Clarence River Valley and the city of Grafton. No Aboriginal names here. The bus does not stop for sightseeing so I have found a photo online of the Upper Clarence Valley from the Gibraltar Range.

I stayed in a motel near the railway station as I had to leave on the 6.30am train on Friday morning. Therefore I had to walk across the Grafton Bridge to reach the main city. The bridge was opened in 1932 and at that time it was the second largest bridge in Australia, having opened a few months after the much large Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is rather unique in that the top deck is used by motor vehicles and the lower deck by the railway. It use to open for shipping but no longer.

The city population is 16,500. I again used a self-guided tour brochure but think it was meant for driving rather than walking as I have worked out that, even after leaving out some of the sections, I had walked about 12 kilometres and had very sore feet when I got back to the motel that afternoon. It is more scenic than Moree having such a wide river. It is renowned for its jacaranda trees but the jacaranda festival is in late October. There were also some magnificent Fig Trees.






It is a cathedral city and I visited Christ Church Cathedral which was opened and dedicated in 1884. I saw there was to be a Eucharist service at 12.30 for the Feast of the Transfiguration and although I did not hurry I found I had completed the western section of the walk and was back near the cathedral at that time so attended.

A young woman deacon took the service and spoke both on the fact it was Hiroshima day as well as being the Feast of the Transfiguration and we prayed that the world might be transfigured for Peace. It was my first time of being at a Eucharist which used the Reserved Sacrament as this is not allowed in the Sydney Diocese.

On Friday I travelled by the train the 880 km back to Sydney taking 10 hours then again the nearly 2 hours back to the mountains. The lovely warm winter weather I had experienced all week changed to cold winds and showers but luckily I only had the cold winds for my long walk homein the dark from the station.

Today I set off for my usual trip to the city for the service of Eucharist at St James. When I reached the station they were announcing the train was running over 30 minutes late. If I had chosen to drive I would not have been able to park as the City to Surf Race is on today and its starts very close to the church. So I returned home, thankful I had received the Eucharist on Thursday.

Memory of Mum - A Hundred Years

Mum was born on 7th August 1909.
Today would have been her 100th birthday.
However Mum died on 6th July 2006 just short of her 97th birthday.

I remember praying she would reach 90 then that she would see the 21st Century, then that she would reach 95.
I wanted her to reach 100 and receive a message from the Queen. However she was too ill, she wanted to go and it was not to be. Caring for her was taking a big toll on my sister.
God knew it was time to call her home.

At the memorial service, Sue concluded her sermon with:

Marge was intelligent, thoughtful and a woman of God. She listened to God's voice, and when she believed she could hear it, she would welcome it and say amen. I'm sure our inclusive God has already welcomed her home, but I know I will remember her as a woman ahead of her time, who saw Jesus as representing a God in whom there are no exclusions. She would often tell me how much she agreed with something I'd said, and always it was something about being more inclusive and less exclusive. If only the church would hear the feelings and opinions of people like Marge. God go with you all as you journey on the difficult road of living without her physical presence. In spirit I have no doubt she will always be with us. Amen.

Happy Birthday Mum, I miss you.

Travel North by West

I have travelled by train 640 km north west of Sydney to a town called Moree.
My overseas readers will be interested in the names of some of the towns through which we passed.
Murrurundi, Quirindi, Gunnedah, Boggabri and Narrabri.
I guess these are all words of the Gamilaraay language spoken by the Kamilaroi Aboriginal people who live in this area.
I left home just before 7.30am as I had to drag my bag up hill the kilometre to the station, I usually drive.
After my usual train trip to Sydney the country train left just after 10am and arrived Moree at 7pm. Due to my age I receive 4 free vouchers for country train travel within the state each year. I am using 2 of them for the 3 journeys this trip.

Moree has a population of 10,000 with another 15,000 in the surrounding shire. It is fairly flat country producing cattle, sheep, grain crops, cotton and pecan nuts.

Having taken 2 self-guided tours yesterday morning I am now very familiar with the historic buildings and the parks which are nice and green at the end of winter but lacking in flowers this early. Apparently jacarandas and roses would be more evident in late spring.
I visited the art gallery in an old bank building built in 1910. The gallery mainly contained works of the Kamilaroi people. The oldest intact buildings date from the 1890’s. Floods and fires have removed the older ones. Moree was discovered by white explorers in the 1830’s.

All Saints Anglican church was built in 1936. It is in the diocese of Armidale. Armidale is also an evangelical diocese, in fact a greater proportion of its clergy are evangelical than in Sydney. The bishop was trained at Moore College. However, unlike the Sydney bishops, he attended Lambeth. Women are ordained to the priesthood but cannot be in charge of a parish. Being a weekday, the church was closed but I was pleased to see that they have 2 services of Holy Communion every Sunday with an informal service in the evening. This is like the church in which I grew up, evangelical but Anglican. I probably would not agree with them on acceptance of homosexuality but at least they are not trying to split the Communion over a disagreement.

The main reason people visit Moree is to go to the Artesian Baths so I went there in the afternoon. The Great Artesian Basin underlies 20% of the Australian continent. It allowed the development of the grazing industry in Queensland and Northern NSW. The mineral content is too high for cropping.
The Moree bore was sunk in 1895 and is naturally heated by the rocks to 40’C. It is suppose to be healthy and one lady told me she spends 3 weeks in Moree every year.

While I took every chance as a child, teenager and young man to go swimming, I now suffer the effects of the sun in those days. I was not happy unless I was a deep shade of brown, and while I was not muscular at least my body was slim. Sadly I now do not want to display my lily white blotched body and middle age spread. So I have not been swimming for over 15, probably nearer 20 years.

However at the Moree Baths I was probably the youngest taking the waters and certainly my body did not stand out.

I did venture over to the normal baths which are also heated but only to 27’C to check if I remembered how to swim and almost managed 2 laps, having to take a breather two thirds through the 2nd. So that is good to know.

The Moree Baths were a target of a anti-discrimination campaign in 1965 when Freedom riders travelled to the town by bus because Aboriginal people were notallowed in the baths. The leader was Charles Perkins who was the first Aborigine to gain a University degree. He was awarded it in 1966 on the same day as I was awarded my degree. He received a much bigger round of applause, deservedly so.

Moree once had reputation for racial problems but a man on the train told me things had been much better in the last 20 years.

Today I am taking a bus from the plains, across the tablelands and down to the coast , country called Big River Country.

Cassowary - I am woman, hear me roar

Last week I watched a documentary on Cassowaries.
I did not know much about them before except they were found in North Queensland and should be treated with respect.
I think they should be taken as a mascot for all women.
The female is much larger than the male. She may take up to 3 males in a season and seems to do the choosing.
Having laid her eggs, her work is finished, no dreary child care for her.
The male incubates the eggs, and they may not be all his, for about 50 days in which he rarely leaves them in search of food and water. He loses weight. Once hatched the male cares for the chicks for about 9 months.

He may even have to guide the chicks to safety if the mother comes round and wants to feed in the same area.

At the end of the 9 months the chicks are suddenly left to fend for themselves when Mother finally takes an interest in Dad again and drives away the offspring.

I am invincible
I am strong
I am woman

I am taking a small holiday to the north of my state of New South Wales. Am taking the laptop as the motels advertise wifi but in case that does not eventuate, any comments may not be vetted.

You Raise Me Up

Whenever I become disillusioned with the goings on in the Anglican Communion and the homophobic attacks of the local Diocese, I can always be uplifted by seeing a post from Maithri. He always displays what Christian Love is all about.
His latest post is well worth visiting.
I was brought up to believe that Evangelicals had the real Truth. I found teaching work in a Catholic school and my eyes were opened. The De La Salle Brothers and other visiting priests also had a handle on the truth and certainly displayed more Christian Love. 'You Raise Me Up' was a song we sang often during my years teaching at Benilde College.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.