Spending my time

Since standing down I’ve really been ploughing throw the books. I’m currently reading the autobiography of one of our country’s great athletes. She’s done it tough, has experienced racism, experienced the pain of a broken relationship, and gone on to win gold medals at a couple of Olympic Games.

Prior to this book, I’ve managed to read “Boy Toy”, a novel about a murder with gay connections written by Michael Craft; “Sex-Crime Panic”, an account by Neil Miller of the public hysteria towards and persecution of homosexuals in Sioux City, Iowa, in the mid-1950s following the brutal murder of two children there; “Enigma” by Robert Harris, a novel set around the race by the British to crack the code used by German U-boats in World War II; “In the Pond” a story about morality and power by Chinese-born Ha Jin; and re-read for the umpteenth time Richard Bach’s “Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. My sister, Bernadette, is still to return my copy of the latest Harry Potter book, so when I conclude the athlete’s autobiography I’ll start on Graham Greene’s “Our Man in Havana” – other than some of his short stories, I’ve not read any of his major works.

But book reading isn’t my sole activity. I’ve been using the time to spend with some friends. Last Wednesday I enjoyed a pleasant lunch with a friend (from the refugee support group of which we’re both members) at a new eatery at a near-by winery that had been recommended to her. And last Thursday I went to Progress City to have some lunch with a friend who is the principal of the Catholic high school there. Today another friend from Home City dropped in after visiting her mother at the aged hostel here, and then I went to visit another friend who is a parishioner here and is on our Pastoral Council. I’m very blest with the supportive friends I have in this difficult time.

Yesterday I drove to Home City to have lunch with my family and then went to the cinema to see the film “Nowhere in Africa”, truly a most enjoyable work, if only for the performance of the actor who played the charming African cook.

It seems as though I’ll remain stood down for at least another month, so in a couple of weeks I think I’ll drive to Big Smoke and stay for a week or so to get some different air in my lungs, to catch up on some friends there, and to experience a different pace of life.

How am I handly it all mentally? Well, I have good moments and bad. I can’t control the future so I’m doing my best not to expend useless mental energy and anxiety by worrying about it. All experiences help us learn something about ourselves and give us strength to meet the next challenge.