Poem - topical - political by anon

It's Voting Day!

I want a floating duck house
I want to clear my moat
I need to mend my tennis court
That's why I need your vote.

I have to build a portico
My swimming pool needs mending
My lovely plants need horse manure
And the Aga needs much tending

A chandelier is vital
Mock Tudor boards are great
My hanging baskets won awards
And I've earned a tax rebate.

I need a glitter toilet seat.
My piano so needs tuning
Maltesers help me stay awake
And my orchard must need pruning

I could have said the rules were wrong
And often thought I should,
But somehow it was easier
To profit all I could

The public really have to see
That the rules are there to test
And by defrauding taxpayers
We only did our best

The Speaker of the House has gone,
Our sacrificial beast,
But the public are still braying
For our corpses at the feast

What do the public want from us,
Those vote-wielding ingrates?
They really should be grateful
To be financing our estates.

The message is so very clear,
(you're merely learning late)
That the MP's way of living well
Is to screw the ruddy state.

Tempus fugit

Last night I was at a parents information evening for those with youngsters applying for university admission next year. Can time really have flown so fast that our youngest is now ready to follow his sister away from "the nest" and make his own way in the world. Is he really 17.... where did those 17 years go?
Parenting has been a continuing gradual process of letting go. When he was a wee baby we did everything for him. Gradually he became more and more independent and self reliant and now he is by some definitions a man. Yet as those links of dependency have lessened they have been replaced by other links which are potentially much stronger and will ultimately we hope be longer lasting.
Many parents find it hard not to be needed in the same way. And from my distant memories of teenage years, I recall it is hard to be as independent and strong as you think others think you should be. But then no relationships are easy. The word means that we have to relate and in doing so we have to be prepared to change and any change can involve pain.
Albert F Bayly's words come to mind:

Grant those entrusted with the care
Of precious life from thee,
thy grace, that worthy of the gift
and faithful they may be.

Teach them to meet the growing needs
of infant, child, and youth;
to build the body, train the mind
to know and love the truth.

(Hymns and Psalms no 372)

Facebook - good or bad

I have been a member of facebook for just a few days but I am having doubts already.
Is it a valuable use of time to learn how to be a part of this online community when I could be spending the time participating in real people communities instead?
To me the word friend seems to be devalued when it is used so freely and without any depth. (My definition of friendship is summed up in the anonymous quote which I paraphrase "An acquaintance is someone I may spend a lot of time with, laughing and enjoying stories but a friend is someone I choose to cry with.")
So I am undecided about my involvement in facebook.
(If you are an uncritical fan read Janet Street Porter's article "Why I hate facebook". I would probably not go as far as her in her dislike of all social networking sites. See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1138445/Janet-Street-Porter-Why-I-hate-Facebook.html )
On the plus side I can see the value of sharing photos and social invitations with people that you share these things with anyway. It is a good way to make contact with people that you have lost touch with. (Memory can be very selective - do I really share anything with the people who are the same age and once sat in the same school classroom except that memory?!) It is also a great way for discoveries (such as new quotations) or moments of serendipity to be shared.
Perhaps its greatest benefit is for people who live alone and don't have any other channel for interacting with people on the trivia of everyday life?
On the negative side it can function as a community in itself divorced from reality where so called friends may be not who the profile says they are. And let us be realistic about the trivia that is written on walls and the rarity of real wisdom.
I think I will stay with facebook as a tool for keeping in touch with folks I know and want to share with regularly. BUT I must be on my guard never to regard it as anything more than a tool or utility. It is useful but not indispensable. And God help me if "screen based reality" ever seems to be taking over from life as it is to be lived and enjoyed in the company of others....