Hi Everyone
I read something interesting on social media this week when someone posed the question " What did you have as a child that children of today don't have". One word immediately came into my mind but when I looked at the responses the overwhelming words used were "discipline", "respect", "corporal punishment", and "fear of the law". I found those responses a bit depressing not because they were not true but I felt that my word better summed up what I had as a child that is most missed by children today. That word was "freedom". When we were children we could play outside in the street all day long, cycle to the park, take our bottle of water and spend our day in the local woods, or cycle to school in complete safety before we even reached our teenage years. We went with our friends on the local bus or train to the football match or to go roller skating. Our parents never worried about where we were and we had no mobile phones for them to ask where we were or for us to tell them. We never felt threatened and never experienced danger from those around us. While those other words might have some relevance it is freedom that I think children miss most today. Then again what children experience today is their norm so of course they have little or no idea of the freedoms that we had.
We have not had sugar in tea or coffee for years, we do not sprinkle sugar on our breakfast cereal, there is very rarely a bag of sugar in our supermarket basket and a bowl of sugar lumps for visitors lasts for months. That means that our visitors don't take sugar or we don't get many visitors, I will leave you to comment on that. Despite my best efforts and the close surveillance by the Main Contractor, I understand that I am only just below the threshold for diabetes. All this Rubbish is leading to something else I discovered this week, that a single slice of white bread contains 1.4 grams of sugar. That means that one double slice sandwich contains nearly three grams of sugar plus of course the contents of the sandwich. Now I thought that was okay as we eat mainly brown bread but no, still nearly 3 grams of sugar there. The advice is to look on the bread packet when you are next in your supermarket to see if the bread contains sugar or artificial sweetener. Now I don't know about you but have you ever seen anyone searching through ten different bread packets to find one that has sweetener? If you prefer fresh bread from your local baker you have no idea what is in it as it is not even packaged. With all this confusion, I take comfort that I am still here although I am now approaching middle age after a lifetime of eating bread. I think perhaps I have to thank the Senior Partner who could cut a slice of bread so thin that you could see through it so there was no possibility of a slice of her bread having 1.4 grams of sugar in it.
This week the freedom of choice has been pushed to the front of our minds. We complain about the cost of energy, food and mortgages. We have a queue of nearly seven million people waiting for hospital treatment and we are fed up with the potholes in our roads. We are frustrated whenever we telephone an organisation for help or information. But then we realise how lucky we are when we see people just like us having their homes destroyed or, worse still, losing their lives because two groups of people cannot live peacefully with each other. I am sure that, given the choice, there would only be one choice.
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Just a Thought :
88% of parenting is saying "It's time for bed" 150 times.
As the loaf of bread said to a friend after doing them a favour, it was the yeast I could do.
Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than any possession the earth can give.
Brian
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