The Guard focuses on a maverick Irish cop based in picturesque County Galway, where Gaelic is the language of preference. With a nod to more permissive times, a well known Anglo Saxon word serves prolifically throughout the English dialogue. In fact the length of the script would be halved if the F-bomb were extracted. Brendan Gleeson fills out the primary character well, however, as does Don Cheadle, who plays the straight and proper FBI agent investigating the international drug racket that has come to touch the romantic shores of Éire. Without the blarney and subtle quirks, it would be just another cop partner mismatch comedy. Both Gleeson and Cheadle succeed in putting a lot of work into their characters, however, and the dark comedy that results becomes the success of the film rather than the thin plot. One actually becomes quite attached to Gleeson’s character. The cop is certainly no saint, but he is the kind of sinner who carries a wisdom that knows which battles to choose.
Sneezin’ Season
Luxuriant spring growth brought on by good winter rains means more pollen in the air. Consequently I peer at this screen through bleary eyes while breathing through an itchy and runny proboscis. The old “ring of pineapple” on the morning muesli trick, with its natural anti histamines, is obviously overwhelmed today.
So over to you, internet. What are your favourite hay fever remedies?
Related Articles
- Why Allergies Are Called Hay Fever (everydayhealth.com)
Ode to a flat tyre…
… well, not really flat, but the pneumos was certainly depleted.
I blamed it on the three boofy blokes crammed in the back seat of the wagon.
“Hey, your back tyres down a bit,” they said.
First I’d noticed; the car is due for a service.
“Not built to take your combined weight,” I said.
We went to lunch then I distributed them to their various drop-off points.
Took it to the local BP Connect and connected the air hose.
It was 11 – took it up to 30
Then I noticed the coach bolt – rammed in tight
Simultaneously piercing and plugging the tread.
I wonder how slow this leak is?
Will it last through tomorrow’s appointments
Until I get a chance to change the wheel?
Youth Talks – Age Teaches
So runs the Maori proverb in “Native Wisdom for White Minds”
But how many times have I encountered wise heads on young shoulders and immature heads that have long years?
Calculating Seventy Times Seven?
- Image via Wikipedia
Some folk are fond of saying that the teachings of Jesus are impossible to live.
“How often should I forgive – seven times?” asked Peter (no doubt believing himself to be typically magnanimous)
“Pffft!”, replies Jesus, “not seven. Try seventy times seven!”
This was yesterday’s lection, and Ben Smith, our guest speaker, sought to relate it to his report on our local inter-church Food Bank by pointing to the stance of compassion that underpins the Gospel. That is, if one’s basic stance to life is one of compassion, the ability to forgive is a by-product. Other fruits are empathy, selflessness, community, mutual dignity, humility.
Yesterday was also 9/11 and it’s here that “seventy times seven” arises as a a significant challenge. Does 490 cover the initial 3000 and the 100s of 1000s that followed?
I’m sure Jesus wasn’t suggesting his disciples might carry around an abacus so they could stop when 490 was reached. My guess is he was believing they would be so practiced in forgiving that the momentum would keep carrying them forward!
Naive? Some folk find such teachings so naive they actually work!
Here’s a Melbourne aboriginal artist putting 70 x 7 to the test. I wonder how it will work out? Preview: Seventy Times Seven – Local News – News – General – Melbourne Weekly.
9/11 reflections
We haven’t mentioned it much today, but it’s there in the background.
We all know precisely where we were and what we were doing when the planes hit the towers.
We know that the world with which we are most familiar – the privileged, secure world of unquestioned entitlement – took a turn towards a deep and dangerous angst.
We are aware that, in the backlash, 100s of 1000s of people have lost their lives in the wake of the 3000.
The horror of the fall of the towers seems personal. Why?
Is it six degrees of separation?
It seems everyone knows someone who was touched by a personal loss.
I watched a TV interview of an old acquaintance who barely escaped with his life.
Ten years on it is evident that the emotion is still raw, as acts of heroism and kindness are recalled.
He spoke not of anger, but profound sadness.
Does 9/11 stand out because dedicated and focused evil intent succeeded in seeking arbitrary destruction of the innocent and unaware?
Yet evil intent, varying in degrees of focus and ambition, slaughters thousands each day.
And the cycle continues.
Does 9/11 hold a mirror before us?
And we are horrified at what we see?
Lord have mercy
Christ have mercy
Lord have mercy
Recycling light
We seem to be going through the energy saver light bulbs a bit more quickly than I anticipated. Luckily our local IKEA takes them for recycling. Can’t complain though, especially looking at how, McGyver like, this community addresses its lighting problem.
Asylum seekers: What was really said …
In all fairness, I should follow up yesterday’s post with this: Asylum seekers: Andrew Metcalfe’s controversial remarks | Crikey.
Doesn’t alter the fact that we need to go back to the drawing board for fair treatment of those who reach our shores claiming asylum. The secrecy and criminilisation that is current needs to be swept away and a more transparent and “accountable to the public” system put in place. And dare I say compassionate?
Are there Dinosaurs in DOIC?
Remnants of the White Australia era seem to lurk in the labyrinthine corridors of Immigration & Citizenship – and they are advising our politicians!
Let’s hope that the PM listens to Senator Brown and gives them the old heave-ho!
Then maybe our politicians, desperate for sound advice, will heed those with some runs on the board: Asylum seekers and refugees | ACOSS.
That’s all!
Crossing places
Back from retreat. Reflecting still on the ramifications of chaos theory, entropy of closed systems, and the ‘strange attractor‘ in evolutionary transition. So much sync with the Christian story! Ably led by Margaret Silf.
Here’s something I wrote on “crossing places”
My rope bridge came to mind even before it was mentioned
I hate even thinking about it
yet consider it I must for it has come to the rescue many a time before today.
As a child I played with rope
trying it this way and that
little realising that I was learning its swing, its knots,
and breaking suppleness into the stiffness of newness.
In the headiness of youth I one day swung it wide
and some divine being caught the end and tied it.
I crossed many gorges and rivers, taking companions with me.
Then there was the night someone in panic threatened to bomb my bridge.
“Career” he called it.
I said he could do what he liked with my career,
but only God could remove my rope, my vocation.
Another from unconfronted pain
set white ants loose on the wooden trestles.
Others sought to shore up the timbers
even when I pointed to the rope.
The timbers failed
but my rope was in place
and we all made it to the other side
where new beginnings beckoned.
The rope is always there – in my rucksack
– right now way down underneath the other things.
I have to unpack everything before pulling it out, neatly coiled
ready to be stretched out, tied to something,
and the loose end thrown across to – what?
I have to trust again that some angel on the hidden side will hold it,
and catch me as I practice my clumsy aerial acrobatics.
God I hate heights!
But with the resources of wit and wisdom honed by previous use
I swing like Charlotte on her web
not knowing where the rope is attached
for it disappears into the mist.
I simply trust that the angel is not a demon
that the destination heralds a new beginning
and not a final ending.
Wondering Pilgrim 