Debate # 1- How many Gods are there?

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A couple of months back I published some thoughts on capital punishment. To my surprise a fairly fierce debate ensued and interestingly, many of the views brought into sharp focus our cultural and national differences.
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So I thought I’d throw another one into the pot, and just maybe this could become a regular feature to take place at the beginning of the week when writing prompts are thin on the ground.

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People of many religions visit here, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews and many others too. Also of course there are atheists, humanists, agnostics and pagans.

Let’s assume for the sake of this discussion that there is a higher being – a God by whatever name you wish to give it. Is God the exclusive ‘property’ of one particular religion, or are all religions effectively praying to the same God but by different means? Is it possible that only one system of faith is right and those who follow a different one are, for the want of a better expression, barking up the wrong tree? For instance, if the Sikh faith is the right road to travel, does that mean that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope are destined for eternal damnation?

There are of course many folk who do not subscribe to a religion at all, yet spend their entire lives doing good whether on a global, national, local or family level. At the end of their lives will they be judged unfit to pass through the pearly gates, whilst someone else who has led a corrupt and evil life is accepted by virtue of the fact they begged forgiveness on their deathbed?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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OK - I give in!

A hypocrite. Somebody who pretends to have admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings but behaves otherwise.
I wrote an article 3 or so posts down from here entitled BBOB, bemoaning the decline in original thinking on our blogs, and deploring the pack mentality of some of our colleagues. My view was not received particularly well, and for that I apologise.

Indeed , in spite of my article - or maybe because of my article, I was tagged again! Wasn't I Toadie and Jadey?
So to prove that I am flexible in my opinions, and to appease some of my critics, I have decided to play along with the challenge I was proffered. Here goes!
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

.3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.

D - DISCONTENTED. Most people think I have everything I want. A fantastic family, a lovely home and a great bunch of friends. But when I close my door it is very quiet . Some thing is missing.

E - EMPATHETIC. I have always had the ability to identify with, and understand other peoples feelings or difficulties. This has at times been like a weight around my neck.

N- NONCONFORMIST. I feel I have little or nothing in common with my peers. My generation bore me, so I refuse to conform the image that is expected of me.

I - IMPASSIONED. My post BBOB was the perfect example. If I believe in something, I have no problem with shouting it from the roof tops.

S - SYNERGETIC. I have always felt that the whole me is greater than the sum of the parts. What you see is not necessarily what you get. There is more to me than meets the eye! Be warned!

At this point I am required to foist this task onto 5 other people. But everyone who might be interested in partaking has already done so. So I am not going to. As I said, I'm a nonconformist!

BBOB!

I was blogging long before I discovered Helium. In fact, I only came across the site as a result of an Google advert on my blog.


Through the Helium discussion boards, it soon became apparent that we had several avid bloggers in our ranks, and before long we veterans where joined by an ever increasing army of keen writers.


Suddenly our articles were coming to life. We had photographs. We had colour, and a choice of fonts and sizes. The bland and clinical Helium presentation was replaced by something more visually attractive and user friendly.


One thing stayed the same. The quality of the articles remained extremely high.


A few weeks ago something changed. I was partly instrumental in this change of direction when I was 'tagged'. I had to provide a list of facts and create a pyramid effect by spreading the questionnaire throughout our blogging circle.

In no time at all there was a new kid on the block. On most of the sites, creative writing was replaced by another survey, in which we were all asked to provide 40 facts about ourselves.


Currently the sites are dominated by blog interviews. Add to this a new craze for downloading photos of zippers and dogs under the headings of Mute Monday, Toothless Tuesday, Wobbly Wednesday etc. No doubt this will soon be joined by ****ing Friday and ****ing Sunday!


So what went wrong? What happened to creative writing? Why do so many of our blogs look the same? What happened to individuality?


I'm starting a campaign for real blogs. I'll give it the acronym BBOB - Bring Back Our Blogs.


Let's get writing, and posting our own photographs. Let's get back to the age old tradition of story telling. Please.

Think pink!

The other day someone put my white chef jackets in the washer with a load of new dark red serving cloths.

As a result I have been wearing pink in my kitchen for the last week - and I’m told it’s really fetching! My girls tell me it suits me!

And why shouldn’t it? It’s a lovely colour. I own at least two pink shirts - I have a couple of ties in pink too. I have a glorious pair of pink socks and have even been known to wear pink knicky-nacky-noos!

The sunset was pink tonight, and I’ve just been pruning my pink rose bushes. My children were pink when they were born and I probably was too! I celebrated with pink champagne (not at my own birth you understand) and watched Pinky and Perky with them on the TV.

So why should pink be hijacked by the ladies? It’s time we men made a stand!

Guys - think pink!