Of Cheery Thoughts for a Monday

I was back in the pool today after a break on account of man flu of a good 4 weeks. I managed 20 lengths only. It was pretty unimpressive. It was cold and I felt miserable. As I went up and down I couldn't help but think of the radio report I heard first thing this morning. It reminded me that you should be grateful for your lot. The first part of the report was from Greece. The reporter was interviewing the many newly homeless in Athens. Two standing in a queue for soup were former teachers made redundant just before Christmas. The second part of the report came from Syria. It started with the awful whistle of bombs dropping then exploding over Homms a heavily populated city in Northern Syria. Economic collapse and political disintegration problems not confined to just two countries either. One might think that by now after all this time we would have developed systems sophisticated enough to avoid such catastrophes but no I can't help but think they'll always feature in modern life for both are run by us - human beings and we are deeply, deeply flawed.