This Thursday will mark the halfway point of the year, and all I can find myself thinking about is one short sentence said by Frodo from the Lord of the Rings: “I wish it need not have happened in my time”.
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Almost every time I turn on the television, I’m greeted by something that brings me back to that phrase: “I wish it need not have happened in my time”.
The Manchester bombings, the endless failures to act on climate change, the failure to give same sex couples the right to marry, racism, bigotry, and the world’s hatred in general.
More recently, we have Margaret Court throwing out her serve against same sex marriage and her opponents returning her opinion with hatred, President Trump attacking the media first thing back from the G7 summit and a convicted drug smuggler getting more attention on her release then the continued drownings of refugees in the Mediterranean.
But just as quickly as that thought comes to me, I remember Gandalf’s response to Frodo’s lament:
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us”.
Already we see this happening - companies and countries deciding what to do with the time given to them.
We have Taiwan moving a step close to legalizing same sex marriage; a full 151 Pokemon based on Australian culture; Iceland aiming to introduce equal pay for women by 2020; India doubling it’s paid maternity leave, making it the third best country in the world for paid maternity leave behind Canada and Norway; two good-natured Tasmanian police taking a drunk punter home safely and leaving him with some friendly selfies and Karl Stefanovic’s rage at the media coverage of Schapelle Corby's return.
The choices we see being made remind me that those who wish to spread hatred are in the minority, and the majority of us are all reasonable human beings.
That as Shakespeare tells us through Shylock, “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?”
2017 has been a roller coaster but as Gandalf says there's still time to make it better, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Matthew Chown.
