Rain in the night and this morning. I used the new dehumidifier when I had to get up for a pee. I didn't get so chilled, slipped back into sleep easier and for longer. A positive outcome, worth the investment. After meds and breakfast, I went back to bed and spent some time resting and writing to see if it was possible to cope better with the impact the medication is having on me after taking it in the morning. Less worse, less of a struggle to stay awake and think clearly.
News reports about the mass shooting of fifteen people at Hanukkah festivities in Sydney yesterday identify the killers as islamist fanatics, a father and son as perpetrators. Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi spoke powerfully on 'Thought for the Day' about this fiesta as affirming faith and identity, celebrating the miracle of Jewish survival during persecution by imperial Rome leading to the continuing determination of Jews not to be driven into the shadows by anti-semitic hatred "We are here, we belong, we will not hide who we are." The right to gather freely safely and publicly", he says, "is not a Jewish issue alone, it is a test of the moral health of any society that claims to value freedom, difference and human dignity".
The right to freedom of speech is easily perverted into tolerance or acquiescence of unacceptable anger, aggression and hate speech against anyone who dares to be different. It's another symptom of decline in moral health of contemporary society, of resistance to learning to live together with those whose culture or experience of life is unlike our own. Have we become lazy or too vague about the difference between right and wrong, too comfortable with thinking moral judgements are no more than a matter of opinion? Living faith calls for a moral code based on the understanding that it is wrong to make another person suffer. To sin against God or a neighbour is to cause suffering. How often we seem to be indifferent to the suffering of others, devalued by the way they are spoken of. When this happens, violence against them is never far behind.
While Clare was out I cooked veg for lunch with savoury butter beans for me and boiled eggs for Clare. Blood thinners leave me feeling poorly as if my blood sugar levels are low. Is this a side effect? I need to raise this concern at my cardio consultation at UHW scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
After a rest, I printed Christmas card envelope labels using my Chromebook connected to the lazer printer. It was a fiddly job, downloading address label master copies from OneDrive, uploading them to Google Drive and getting the Open Document Format files recognised by Google Docs but succeeded after a spell of trial and error. I need to get around to exchanging Linux Mint on my workstation for an alternative version of Linux which works with my printer. I simply can't be bothered to spend hours troubleshooting a fault caused by a Mint update. It's a shame, as I have happily used Mint for the past decade with few problems. There doesn't seem to be a straightforward fix for this. Maybe there will be when the next Mint upgrade comes along.
After supper I went to Conway Road Methodist Church for a performance by the fifteen strong Canna Capella choir Clare sings with. It was a fund raising concert in aid of a local organisation that supports refugees, by enabling them to engage fully in local life and work. This includes a project aiding medically experienced and qualified people to become accredited to work here and acquire enough English language to continue in their professional sphere if they need to do this. Impressive stuff. About fifty people were present. I enjoyed the singing, but found the noise of chatter and social interaction following the music stressful to cope with. It may be to do with the meds, but could be fall-out from the traumatic experience of my sojourn in A&E. Glad to get to bed at the end of the evening.
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