Doom and Gloom

I thought it was just me. Thinking that the world is going to pot. That there is war and violence in every corner of the globe. That the poor are still poor, that the rich are getting richer and that the gap between them is getting larger.

I suppose there is nothing new in any of that. It was ever thus. But what really saddens me and makes me feel increasingly despondent is the seeming collapse of standards in this country. I am not talking of table manners and common courtesy. I am referring to the increasing number of people in public life who are caught with their hands in the till, lying through their teeth, perverting the course of justice, paying themselves whopping bonuses while sacking people galore and so on and so forth.

England used to be a country where, on the whole people could not be bribed, where garden produce or Evening Standards were left unattended in the street and buyers left their money in a box. Where huge deals were sealed only with a handshake and nobody defaulted. Where people left their front doors unlocked. Where children played out in the street.

What has happened? Has integrity become an obsolete word? Has honesty become outdated? And isn't it sad that people much younger than me are also pessimistic about the state of the world.

No - I am absolutely not that old!

In this large family, birthdays come round all the time and this weekend, we celebrated our elder twins' birthday. Since you ask, they turned fifty or, seen as a banded pack, they were one hundred.
Of course, I am thrilled to bits but do I really have to own up to having children of that age? And while we are being honest, my eldest is older than that.
I am pondering, quite unsuccessfully, how I can pass all that off. Conventionally, women of a certain age, never admitted to more than fifty but I can't get away with that, can I? I will have to settle for inspiration at some future date.
In the meantime, over twenty of the very nearest and dearest celebrated  in style with accompanying garish balloons and a great deal of laughter.
And then again, I ponder how one can produce two (fraternal) twins who are as unalike as chalk and cheese and then, one marries a Chinese girl who was a fashion designer and then retrained as a speech therapist. The other one marries a Japanese girl who takes a degree in textile design and is now in the process of becoming an art therapist. One has been married for about twenty years, the other only seven or eight. And guess what? They both got married on September 19.
Coincidence? Predetermination? Or what?