ManServant

Let it Rain

A Glasgow morning had been heavy with warm fog and darkening skys. At breaktime in year one Neil & I kicked a ball between us and from gate to post. If the ball was angled just right it would result in a perfect rebound to your playing partner who would attempt the same shot. The more of these you got in a row, the more satisfying the game was. We counted each pass, hoping to reach twenty. Neil played for Motherwell and I played for the Pars!

Although it was mid February, the rain began heavily, like a tropical storm; not gently with tiny wind blown drops first felt on the face, but with dark shapes that appeared on the ground. One after the other landed about us. Very quickly they became more frequent and in only a second or two, the heavens opened. My uniform cap was drummed by the falling rain and instinctively we stopped our game and looked up.

The whistle sounded signalling the end of playtime but for some reason we remained rooted to the spot at the far and of the concrete enclosure. Still looking skywards I removed my cap and opened my mouth to taste. We stood in a gushing shower. I'm concsious now that its taste was not tropical however. Instead I recognised the faint metalic and familiar coal fires at the back of my throat. Neil struck a familiar pose and as the other children ran off back to class he continued to look skywards, squinting from the rain in his eyes.

As if welcoming the torrent's arrival he outstretched both arms and waggled his fingers. We looked across to each other, ignoring the ball as it rolled far away from us, and smiled. 'Jeeessuuuss', said Neil, thats proper rain. Our maroon blazers were now soaked and the puddles now forming at our feet were deep enough to splash in. Sandles and socks had been relatively dry but we soon fixed that by splashing each other! You might think we looked like we were playing at the local baths or imagining a day trip at the seaside. Instead of passing the ball we gleefully traded splashes. By now we seemed to have forgotten we were at school.      

Let it Rain      

   

Sodom & Gomorrah of our time

 

First the politicians, then the banks, the shops, the downturn, property, Woolies, bailing out car companies, record cold snap it makes you wonder if this is the Sodom & Gomorrah of our time. I have a prediction that something big will happen with schools and in particular exam results this year; pupils will start to get lower grades. Instead of the compulsary A star star double plus highly praised standard eagerly provided by the government so that they can continue to say 'we kept our promise on education', somebody somewhere will turn a blind eye to one teacher breaking ranks and actually reading and marking a paper ! After all, ministers will still be too busy borrowing more money this Summer to even notice. 

So are we being punished for wrong doing? In a way I suppose we are but unlike the biblical fire and brimstuff delivered to ancient cities by the Gods, its the weakness of man to greed and temptation, our unbalanced focus on wants, which can be blamed for some of our woes. There is a feel too of natural forces at work. The elasticity of the feel good factor, can only mean that a bubble of confidence will be contracted at some point by its own quivering membrane.

Ten year cycles of boom and bust have been around for decades but this one does feel different. Sodom and Gomorrah could indeed be New York & London where many once high and mighty reveared individuals have been exposed for what they are. There no longer appears to be anything that sophisticated about the world of high finance. Don't you think? 

Events have surely shown us that a more sustainable and peaceful way of living and a greater balance for all our existance must be the new goal. I know, this sounds a bit John Lennon, but as Billy Joel said 'We did'nt start the fire, it has always been buring since the world was turning.' Perhaps ever since market traders in Sodom and residents of Gomorrah struggled to pay their own creditors we have continued to miss the whole point of us being here ....