5 July, 2015 A Death and the Greek Results

I have just watched A Song for Jenny on the BBC --a drama about the death of a young woman in the 7/7 London bombings --it's the 10th anniversary on Tuesday. It was painful to watch and humbling to see the actuality of what happened to people whose daughter was killed, and to her siblings and fiance. I remember being so relieved that Mike was safe at work, and that London friends made it through. How they walked all the way home that night, many of them together, and for several miles. And how proud I was of our people that we just carried on without a fuss. But until now I've had no idea what hell the inside of that was like, for the 52 unlucky ones, and the 770 injured.

A friend of ours was killed on Friday night (3rd July) in an accident --he took a cousin up in his microlight and it hit a shed. They were both killed instantly -- he was Ed Morris, 62, a retired doctor, a Quaker. I've been dealing with shock and despair over the randomness and chance, the pointlessness of trying to make order or things better --have felt unable and unwilling to struggle further

Now with this drama and the Greek results I realise, the point is not to try to make all tight and good again -- the point is what you do in spite of the unholy and rotten randomness and hell of it all --how you get up each day and do your best until you stop breathing (as Ed, our friend did); as the family who lost their child on 7/7 did; and as the Greeks decided to do today (they are no longer victims but making their own history again now, however hard it will be  --and have become models again for us other Europeans  --we can say no to austerity, and should!)

Doing your best with the tyranny of time, risk and chance and without easy answers, is the only option --the only way. The only way to beat bad energy at its own game.

RIP:  Ed Morris, a kind, gentle, decent man --a good friend to all those he knew. Ed, you will be missed so much! And deepest sympathy to his great family, also friends!

Good luck to the long-suffering Greeks who have refused to have democracy taken away from them!