Who'd Be An Angel?
Well, this is not the usual mind image of a Guardian Angel – at least, not mine. But he does have certain positive attributes, which some of us will recognise as not entirely religious ones. Despite what you may already be thinking, this is not a post about religious icons, but something different. We have all seen, read about and actually been involved in, great acts of kindness in the community. And these acts of kindness are not limited to our own community. They are reflected in communities across the whole country, if not the whole world. What I have seen going on in another community, however, made me think! It is at times such as these that people club together and think of others. Floods, storms and other acts of God can have the effect of bringing out the best in all of us. Very heart-warming! The reason for this post is not to self-congratulate at a societal level - but rather to recognise what is happening in this respect and question it. It prompted me to ask this simple question. Why, as a society, as a people, don’t we behave in this way all the time – and not just when we are all knee deep in snow, or something far worse, C-19 as now? My truly greatest fear in this time is that life will one day return to the OLD normal. Governments behaving as they do, people rushing about, people not engaging or connecting with one another. And even worse, people returning into their shells and not caring and looking out for others – as they are doing right now in great numbers. In this time when we are not rushing about, prevented as we are from doing most things -including working out at the gym like some Angels might [God forbid] - we have time to stop, think and reflect. In doing just that, I was struck this week by the concept behind a movement going on in another community. A community acting just like Tetbury and others right now. In that other community, people are adopting other people to help in some way - shopping being the first need in most cases. How lovely and thoroughly sensible and intelligent is that! They call themselves Guardian Angels. What if, the Guardian Angels existed all the time - in the earth plain I mean - and every community, including Tetbury, had their own Guardian Angel group? How even MORE lovely that would be. Something very positive – carried forward from a torrid time - for the NEW normal. The NEW normal I wish to see in the NEW time! For the image, I give credit to: The Art of DionJa'Y Large format posters are available online at: pixels.com A nice little gift for the wife perhaps – just an idea… Author: David Swettenham
