Friday, April 7, 2023

Good Friday Service is on YouTube

Yesterday continued foggy well into the late morning and the sun, although present, melted all the ice on the trees (thankfully) so the view of the sun shinning through the ice did not happen. Although fascinating, it is better for the trees not to be loaded down with ice. More and more melting as we move onwards towards late spring. The snow still dominates the look of the land. The sunrise today is a quiet golden. It is a solemn day in the Church calendar and a sad one even though called Good Friday. I will attend the service on YouTube. It is wondrous to see so many services on YouTube around the world. God's message in this modern era travels around the world at lightning speed to any and all who wish to listen. The miracle of science and man's ingenuity working together to make all things possible. And we can, if all the world could just co-operate and believe in peace and non-aggression. There is a balance in being part of a larger group but that larger group has to pay the price of being benevolent and not greedy. Another message that Jesus brought to us over two thousand years ago now. The Lent without Borders email from PWRDF has been a thoughtful addition to my Lenten time and today a braided bread recipe reminds me that we are all part of the same although not all of us are Christian many of us are members of faith denominations around the globe thanking God for His goodness and gifts to the world through the ages and especially on Good Friday for Christians the gift of His only Son Jesus. Would that this Good Friday could see an end to violence in the world. 

Can Homo sapiens actually manage to survive in this world; Neanderthals existed for half a million years but we are much younger although in the couple of hundred of millions years but as a non-nomadic peoples our ancestry does not go back very far. Are we capable of peace - the European Union is a sign that we are; that continent was ripped apart by war for centuries and Russia invading Ukraine brought that back again but the European Union (and their supporters including NATO) has stood strong in support for Ukraine. The European Union and NATO want peace; peace means prosperity for all not just a few Russian oligarchs (namely Putin and his enablers) greedily trying to gobble up Ukrainian land telling all sorts of lies to the world and particularly China. But it is all about greed - one of the seven deadly sins of the Church. Glory to Ukraine. Prayers for Ukraine as always.

I also accomplished ten pages of hits on Find My Past placing me at 43.5% completed. It is a slow process but very worthwhile as it helps to fill in some of that missing material in the 1600s and early 1700s. If I had  not seen it happen in my own family though I never would have thought that a large family could dwindle down to so few eventually carrying on the line in the mid 1700s and then the numbers climb back up again into the 1800s but dwindle again in the 1900s as a number of them emigrate away from England taking their surname with them (in some cases or their married surname with memories of that maiden surname) to Australia, South Africa, the United States and Canada. That was the largest part of my research work yesterday. It can take a while sorting through some of the hits but a very worthwhile effort for sure. 

I was listening to a discussion on whether polling before elections affects the voter turnout. Whether it does or it doesn't is not really the point that should be made. I would like to see more demographics on the people who are in a poll when the poll numbers are published (and those who refused to share demographic information).

Today I shall continue with the Find My Past hits for Siderfin but also I need to spend time thinking about the Kipp Newsletter and what will go into this particular one. As time passes I am getting further and further away from Edward's research primarily because he isn't here to talk about it. We often met for coffee (tea for me) to do thinking sessions (or learning German (relearning as we both studied scientific German at University) as we were going to go there next) in our morning breaks from doing research. He would talk about what he had done and so my mind was sort of current to what was happening.

On to breakfast after playing my solitaire games; I was out of order a bit today!


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