We have plenty of reasons to be happy – opinion

Dear Reader, Life is good. Once we accept that death, the ultimate decider, is part of life, then we can accept, with greater clarity, that we are quite fortunate.

In this country, the only country I can speak of with any knowledge, we have a good approach to death. The Catholic Church, despite all its evils (and much of that evil is invented by people and advocates seeking financial retribution for, in many cases, real injustices as well as perceived injustices), remains a source of comfort in death for many people.

The GAA, for all its faults, knows how to support grieving families. The Guard of Honour is a much-appreciated source of comfort.

The Irish wake, despite its often portrayed image in literature, drama and film, is a continuing affirmation of support for those left behind in times of loss.

There is life after death. For those who remain alive, there is comfort and help in the support of family, friends and neighbors. Today, counselors and therapists are available to offer support, comfort and guidance to those who have lost faith. They are taking the place of the church and probably doing a reasonable job, but they still have a long way to go to catch up on the vigil.

Life is good. There is much strife, chaos, death and destruction in places in a cruel and uncaring world. Places like Gaza, where civilians face daily bombardment, famine and eviction. Places like Sudan, the second most populous country on the African continent, where more than half the population experiences famine and starvation on a daily basis. Places like Yemen, where half the population is hungry while the other half is at war, often with sophisticated and expensive weapons. Places like Afghanistan, where the religious fanatics of the Taliban trample women, denying them the right to education and basic human freedoms. Places like Ukraine, fighting back against Russian aggression, where the death toll continues to rise and no one seems capable of starting negotiations that would put an end to the death and destruction. Perhaps Victor Orban of Hungary can show the way. The EU certainly won’t.

We have our own problems here, the most important being homelessness, closely followed by the issue of immigration. Both of these problems can be solved, but it takes time. We can be critical and suggest that the government could have been better prepared, planned ahead and provided housing for everyone who needed shelter. But that would have only led to an even greater increase in immigrants looking for a place to live. There are no simple solutions… no matter what the politicians say.

Life is good. We are basking in the aftermath of a very successful Olympic Games and are currently rejoicing with our Para Olympians doing themselves, their families and friends proud in Paris. We continue to be amazed and amused by the incredible Paul O’Donovan who took his seventh world title in the lightweight single sculls in Canada.

A dedicated fanatic, O’Donovan skipped the Olympic homecoming celebrations to prepare for the world championships, and his victory was a bit of a damp squib, simply because it was a foregone conclusion. Cork people are not generally known for their humility, but O’Donovan is in a different league. The media don’t bother O’Donovan, who treats them and their embarrassing questions with a certain amount of contempt.

It is a shame that the media did not leave Rhasidat Adeleke alone. She came fourth at the Olympics and in a recent Diamond League 400m race. Ahead of her at the finish line was a Bahraini runner, Salwa Eid Naser, who had been serving a two-year ban for doping. She was allowed to compete at the Olympics and was invited to run the 400m at the Diamond League meeting. She may have run “clean” in both races, but the media raised the prospect of doping and used Adeleke to question Eid Naser’s bona fides.

It is not Adeleke’s job to ask who should run against her. That is the job of the race organizers. Adeleke risks being seen as a whiner because she is responding to the urgings of media types who are not afraid to put words in her mouth. Those same media will be the ones to paint her as a whiner if she does not deliver on the promise she undoubtedly has. Adeleke is a talented runner. She is on her way to becoming a world class athlete. She is the best athlete in Ireland. She should be allowed to run without having to generate controversy for the sake of the media.

Life is good. It seems that we haven’t had many summers in terms of summer weather, which is not surprising when you consider that we don’t seem to know when summer starts or ends. In my day, summer started in May, ended in July and in August the autumn season began. Nowadays, encouraged by the confusion at the Met Office, people choose their own summer and June, July and August have taken over from May, June and July.

Now, I don’t care either, because I can’t control the weather, but I can control how the weather affects me. If it’s raining, I can stay indoors or, if humor takes hold of me, I can put on a coat and let the rain caress me. We have to be a little more patient with the weather sometimes. There’s no point in whining.

There has been a lot of rain in the last few months, but it seems to me that the complaints about the bad summer far exceed the reality of the situation. We like to complain about the weather and try to beat the weathermen/women. If we have a morning of rain and an evening of sunshine, we ignore the sunshine and concentrate on the rain and rarely think about those regions of the world that would give a fortune to have the rain that we have.

Half the world is going up in flames with record temperatures and the other half of the world is complaining about the lovely soft rain. We are never happy. And perhaps the rain has had an unintended consequence (that’s the new phrase for when things don’t go as planned). You will have noticed that the rioters and protesters have been less in our faces lately. The arsonists seem to have gone on holiday. Perhaps their matches have gotten wet. The far right has slipped under the radar or perhaps they have made an agreement with the Gardaí to suspend operations until the weather improves. Either way, the silence is welcome.

Life is good. Away with the whiners.

Thought for the day

Confucius says: True knowledge is knowing the degree of one’s ignorance.