Moral dilemmas,

I have been through a few, some I have failed at, others well I have managed to stand true. I am fortunate, I have a place to live, food to eat, even some toys. I am living week to week at the moment but I still have choices and I can improve my lot.

Some time ago I bought a small boat, not a lot of money, however enough. I have been out fishing three times. I want to fish more but needed to make some adjustments. I am safety-wise, I have life jackets, VHF, cell phone, first aid, and fire extinguisher and I won’t go out of the Harbour at the moment as I lack the experience to go across the bar at Waihi Beach. I am a member of Coastguard and put in trip reports (p.s. you don’t need to be a Coastguard member to put in trip reports).

I decided I would get a backup motor, I had two I had bought cheap, and regretted it, hard to start, I scrapped them this week. So I bought a brand new motor. Unboxed it and was gobsmacked, instead of the 999.00 motor in the box there was a 1600.00 one. Now as far as the law is concerned it was mine, a contract had been entered into and money exchanged hands. It felt good for a little while and I found myself justifying keeping the motor. That was dilemma number 1, very shortly after dilemma number two appeared.

I decided I better register my boat trailer and get it legal. I checked the registration plate and it was listed as stolen. My heart fell to my boots, you see for me that’s a no-brainer. It doesn’t belong to me. I may have bought it but stolen is stolen! I had a small pity party then called the Police, took that which was mine off the boat and hitched it up to my car. At the same time, I reboxed the motor and put it into the back of my car. Law or no law my conscience couldn’t keep it. Times are tough and retailers cannot afford to lose 600.00. I took the boat to the Police and returned the motor.

I would love to tell you that I felt great but actually, I didn’t. The boat thing happened as I did not do a fundamental check and run the plate number through the system. If it wasn’t listed as stolen or a security registered against it I would have been covered via an insurance system. To be fair I had ignored my niggles, it was;t super cheap or anything, there was just a quiet voice and I was ignoring it as I didn’t want to lose any money.

The Police Constable said you could have kept this thrown away the number plate and sampling removed the plate number that was painted on. I said it comes down to this I call myself a follower of Christ (thank God for Grace as sometimes I am not that flash at it) I also believe in integrity then there are the other po (posts that inform ny life). My Family and friends. A house that has only three walls or posts is not very strong. In the end if I have nothing but God, Family, Integrity and Friends then that is enough, I am a rich man.

Well I got a call from the Police, the only stolen thing on my boat was the number plate, the boat was not listed as stolen and the trailer that the plate matched was not a boat trailer. Could I please come and pick it up from the lock-up. I felt good, but not vindicated. I didn’t see it as a reward for doing the right thing. I got the money back that I had put down on the motor, so I decided to wait for an auxiliary rather than buy the one I was going to. That money needed to go to help some people who are away from their families working. to support them and I am putting on a Christmas Lunch for them. Once again I don’t feel that I am good and I don’t expect any reward here’s why.

My reward in life comes from knowing that doing the right thing as an outworking of my faith is my reward. To maintain faith in a living and practical way that also demonstrates how faith should be is something that the church just doesn’t do very well. Many people try however for many others, they go to church on a Sunday, they may put some money in the plate and that’s it.

Here is the kicker. Times are really tough for a lot of people right now, New Zealanders from the middle to the bottom of the economic scale are being smacked around in every corner. I will talk about that in my next post,

Be Strong and steadfast,

Paul

Hamlet, Really? Yes!

“To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles…” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56965/speech-to-be-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-question .

Most recently I wrote a message to my beautiful daughter, she provides administrative services online and can work virtually anywhere in the world. I am not sure if I regret the message or not. How deeply does one communicate with ones children? How much of struggle and uncertainty should one share? Why share with her when she is half a world away? Well one of those answers is that she was on my mind and I decided to message here and what came out was typical of my neurally diverse mind, stream of consciousness barely filtered writing.

I can see the thought trains running, what has this got to do with Hamlet? Well recently I enrolled to complete a teacher refresher course so that I can go back into the classroom. Let me clear being a teacher is not a career for those who are of a more delicate constitution, the filth, the verbal and physical attacks and the general chaos of our education system is bruising and challenging (if you care). However, I am recovering from the head injury that has kept me from the classroom. I will be 61 years old soon and I have reached a place in my life where some crossroads are imminent. The question is if not teach then what? Write? If I write how will I earn? The second crossroad is health. My health is somewhat indifferent with ongoing health issues which are frustrating and limiting. So..

Into the study I go, it doesn’t seem to be too much of a challenge, I am no stranger to the world of academia. The second is health. We know that our health system is overrun, overworked underfunded and generally more messy than a truckload of offal overturned on a main road. We live in a time where the number one concern is paying too much tax, closely followed by the usage of Maaori in official names and communications and the moral peril of Co-governance. To think that those issues decide the outcome of an election is an obscenity and reflects on Aotearoa as being a greedy, racist country where money buys political influence. Any country whose Government attacks efforts to lower smoking rates to fund tax cuts is an odious stain on those who voted for the shower of detestable scat. FDair pay agreements gone, so the payment to women (mainly) for their work is according to Ms Willis (Minister of Finance) merely a function of the market. If companies make more money that will pay their workers more, what kind of horse shit is that!

Now don’t think that I believe Labour is without blame in this, they wasted an overwhelming electoral mandate by allowing internecine conflict to continue within the party and put its efforts into trying to convince the unconvinceable of the merits of co-governance, they should have just done it and got one with building homes, rebuilding hospitals and investing in our health care and education systems. They may still have lost the election however at least it would have been a principled loss rather than a capitulation through a lack of vision and action.

Now after all that I am tired and I feel that perhaps I haven’t said anything at all, therein lies my question. To be or not to be?

Paul

Sometimes When My Sister Talks I Hear My Mum Come Out.

Passionate, short, fiery, a human dynamo, that’s a few words you could describe my sister.  Patricia Susan Gapes (nee Cronin)  also known as Trish, Patsy Sue (call her that at your own risk).  Today is her birthday.

How is the Golf?

Jack  (not his real name) was sitting in the corner sipping his beer, I said how are you Jack?  His head snapped around like a triggered

My Son Josh

I am a blessed man, I have a number of young people in my life, some of them are my sons and daughters by birth, others related by blood, others are people that have come into my life,