For the last few weeks now both the local and national news have been focussed on the weather conditions in the UK. This isn’t going to be a barrage of words about how we handled the prolonged ice and snow, in fact I learnt several lessons about being spontaneous and making the most of opportunities that come your way, but more about the fact of how quickly we can have tunnel vision about our own lives in these circumstances.
It seems only this morning as the ice and snow is melting that the devastating earthquake in Haiti has made the headlines. As problematic as the weather may have been for some people over recent days and weeks, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps as part of a world-wide population we have lost some of our perspective on what really matters and the scale of events that seemingly do not have a direct effect on us. During the snow, I would love to believe that famine, war and slavery had all stopped while we dealt with our ‘crisis’ – but the truth is, that this will never be the case. While we debated whether schools should be closing and the inconvenience of buses not running, tens of thousands of children around the world would have continued their daily hike to school, if in fact they are privileged or healthy enough to go at all.

The Huddersfield Examiner reported on the front page yesterday the fact that 1 person from Huddersfield has died in Haiti. With the death toll currently at an estimated 20,000 and rising, it is with no disrespect to grieving family and friends that I again question the narrow field of news that is generally presented to the British public and the way that this affects our thinking. The majority of news that is reported from war around the world, often has a strong focus only when British soldiers are directly involved. We can all work out that for every one soldier killed, there must be a continuing war with continuing devastating consequences, but do we allow our thoughts to wander that far? The young people (& leaders) were privileged last Sunday to have their sessions led by a great volunteer from Christian Aid, and one of the questions she asked them was how they reacted when a newsflash interrupted a television program they were watching. Perhaps for all of us we need to ask ourselves the question of how much we allow events that people live with day in and day out to ‘interrupt’ our own lives and the bubble we can easily put around ourselves. Perhaps we cannot instantly change the slant that the news may sometimes have, but we can change our reactions, actions and focus as we give time, energy and resources to those who have more than the snow to worry about.