Wages of sin…

It has been a strange week with things going wrong. First the car decided it was going to play up and had to booked in for repairs. We were told it could cost potentially more than the car is worth to fix it. I decided not to worry about that until the garage had given their verdict.

Then I discovered that my bank card had been cloned and to date over £2,000 taken from our account This is money we can’t afford to lose, and with the problems with the car means it is a double whammy.

I booked the car in for Wednesday and then sat by the phone, trying not to chew my fingernails, until they called just before lunch with their diagnostics report. We had the first good news of the day. The problem was caused by a known manufacturing fault and the manufacturer would contribute 85% of the cost, which left us with a much smaller and more manageable bill.

Soon, after the car was sorted I received a flurry of texts from the bank to say they had looked into the fraudulent transactions and decided to refund all the money. My new bank card arrived today. So things are looking up again.

Now, I know people say these things come in threes and our kettle decided to stop working last weekend so I am counting that as our run of three.

I am glad I made the decision not to worry about the car or about losing money from our account as it has saved me sleepless nights and hours of agonising, instead I just got on with my days and allowed events to take their course and everything turned out fine in the end.

That said, I am still angry that someone thinks it is o.k. to steal other people’s money. Money, that we have worked hard for and had plans for and could have been gone in seconds without us realising all because someone else finds it profitable to put their skills to criminal use rather than using them for the good of society. What they don’t realise is that someone always pays in the end. Most probably the innocent who will pay higher insurance bills or interest rates in order to cover the bankers losses.

While, doesn’t really reflect what I am talking about it caught my attention this week and I have listened to it a few times. The words, and the horns are haunting. All of us pay, but why should we have to pay for other’s sins?

 

Enjoy!

Wages of sin

 

 

 

Chasing demons…

We all have our inner demons, for some they are stronger than for others and we spend many years fighting them without success.We take drugs, drink to excess  or overeat all in an attempt to assuage those demons. Some of us will continue to do these things for as long as we live, never facing up to those demons, or dealing with past hurts and the emotions that arise instead we bury them deep and pour down our poison to keep them there.

Some are luckier than others, they have talents which they use to channel the angst, anger, sadness that they feel. They write songs, they paint pictures, and without actually having to talk about it they share their feelings with the world. They have the gift of letting others know that they are not alone in their pain, and can bring a form of release to strangers.

Music has always been a large part of my life, I was brought up on classical music,  and as I hit my teens graduated to pop music and as I have moved through life one artist has stuck with me the whole way through. Whatever mood I am in I can find a song and sometimes a whole album to suit it. I have sat and cried while listening, I have danced with joy, I have had moments where everything just seems right and the words of the song speak loud and clear and I am grateful for all that I have.

That artist is Bruce Springsteen. I was introduced to him at university by a young lad who had spent the summer in America and was hugely influenced by him. This young man spent a lot of time at our flat as he fancied my flat mate, after several months she finally made it clear that nothing was going to happen and he drifted out of our lives leaving behind all his Bruce collection. I contacted him to try return the tapes (yes tapes, it was that long ago!) but he told me to keep them for which I am eternally grateful. I still have those tapes though they are no longer played having long been replaced by CDs and an iPod but the songs are still played on a regular basis and still resonate in my life today.

I went to see Bruce in concert, last Saturday, and was amazed at his verve and energy, how he related to his audience and they to him. He has touched so many lives with his words and music and continues to do so. He has spoken openly about his demons and the fact that performing helps him exorcise those demons, though I hope that by now he has come to terms with his past and that his performances bring him the joy he seems to exude on stage.

My friend who came with me did not understand my excitement before the gig and the crushing disappointment I felt when it was over. Though I was still buzzing on Monday I came down with a thump on Tuesday, when the realisation hit that I had been looking forward to the concert since last December when I booked the tickets and now it was over and there seemed to be nothing bright in the near future. Bruce has provided a soundtrack to my life, through the good times and the bad. The last time I saw him live I was at a high point in my life, young, enthusiastic, with my whole life ahead of me, this time I could relate so much more to those songs, to the atmosphere, to his performance, I recognised in him, and me and a lot of the other people there, a need to have to something to hold on to, to get us through just one more day.

I have him playing now as I type and spend one more day chasing my demons but without the talent he has to share and comfort others.

 

 

 

Human Touch

How I am feeling today is expressed far more eloquently than I ever could in the words of a song, written by Bruce Springsteen. As I do want to breach copyright rules etc. by typing the lyrics on here I am merely putting  some links. Read,  watch, listen and enjoy.

Human Touch

I hope today brings you all you need.