Parkland refuge

I celebrated Mass at St Luke's this morning, taking the 61 bus to Victoria Park then walking through the park grounds, bathed in golden leaves and morning light. Fr Mark, opened up the church for me, on his way to a clergy meeting, and we met at the door. He told me that the charitable foundation St Luke's Healthcare is the successor to what was St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy when I had a hernia repair done there in September 2007. This could fund or contribute to funding private surgery done locally. They were certainly ready and willing to support him in his hour of need last year, although in the end the NHS, after a long over the preliminaries wait did the job. So, when I got back, I spent the rest of the morning writing an account of the background to my request, in the hope that this will prompt an early yea or nay before the actually process of making an application is required.

Clare and I went for a walk in the afternoon around Thompson's Park, just as it was closing for the night at three thirty, an hour before sunset. It's a pity on a sunny evening for people to lose an hour of outdoor recreation, whether feeding the ducks with their kids or out strolling to enjoy the colours, but there won't be too many Council workers charged with the task of opening several each evening and it does take time to ensure nobody gets locked in, or can get away with camping out, if they're homeless. 

Having said that, there's a lot of open parkland around the city center, where tents are pitched in secluded corners, refuges for some, once soup runs are finished for the night. Some unfortunates coping with mental health issues, possibly hardened by army experience, prefer to stay outdoors as long as the weather permits, as some hostels can be anarchic places after hours, with outbreaks of violence and thieving which impact terribly on vulnerable people, that have lost confidence in the 'care' which society is offering them.

Society never seems to have adequate resources to invest in mending a multitude of poor and broken lives. Never is enough demand, moral or practical, placed on those who acquire more they they could ever need for a comfortable life. The injustice is perennial. No revolution has ever succeeded in redressing the imbalance between rich and poor, but without this the true measure of healing needed will never be achieved.

Another episode of 'Beck' on BBC Four this evening. Peter Haber, who plays Martin Beck doesn't appear much or say much. He's almost in the background, portrayed listening thoughtfully, commenting or advising sparsely, acting mainly with facial expressions. The focus is on members of his team of detective and how their different personalities, skills and styles work together, or don't. It offers an excellent study of positive group activity, set against the chaotic and dysfunctional lives of the people who become perpetrators or victims of crime.