From our February 10 edition
IT is a lovely day as I write this. There is frost on the ground but the sun is out. It is cold but then again it is only February so what more do I expect?
Much as I love this part of the world, it was lovely to spend a few days last week somewhere just a little bit warmer.
We wandered the streets of Lisbon wearing only light fleeces and enjoying temperatures of between 14 and 16 degrees. There were people eating out in the street cafes and restaurants – something completely unheard of in Sutherland in February!
Mind you, it wasn’t hard to spot the locals. While we felt warm and were shedding heavy coats, the natives were drawing theirs tighter around them and adding scarves and hats and gloves. We kept wondering what they would do if they lived over here. Would they survive?
But then it simply goes to prove that all things are relative. To Lisbon-ites the temperature last week compared to the temperature at the height of their summer will have been pretty cool and I suspect where they are coming from is where the national press is coming from when it reports a little snow in the South of England as front page news.
Blizzards up here get little or no attention but far less falling on our southern friends is a major event simply because that kind of weather is considered usual for up here but unusual for down there.
All things, as I say, are relative. And that is true for more than just the weather. Think of wealth. Very few of us would ever consider ourselves to be wealthy but in comparison to the lives of many people in this world, even the poorest among us are relatively rich. We have a roof over our head. We can afford to buy this newspaper. We have food on the table and light and at least a little warmth. We have a health service to look after us and we have schools. We might welcome more work, but at least we have a benefit system to help those of us who can’t find any.
In relative terms we are rich.
The trouble is we don’t really appreciate what we have because we don’t often make the comparison between our lives and other people’s.
Perhaps if, when we hear a story on the news for example, we put ourselves in other people’s shoes even just for a few minutes, we might understand those others a bit better and we might also find ourselves wanting to count our (many) blessings.
It’s worth a go...
– Susan Brown.
