I AM A COWARD !

DAY FORTY-NINE:  Thursday 18th February 2021:

Today is an important day, a VERY important day. I have three VERY important days each year. Thursday 18th February 2021 at 1.20pm I will be donating a pint of my blood. This will be my 30th donation. I am ashamed of that number.

I have told this story before and I will not stop telling it. I am a COWARD, a miserable pathetic COWARD whose cowardice needs to  go viral.

When I was a student the matron of our college received her gold badge for donating 50 pints of blood. She invited, tried to persuade we students to become donors. Matron was a formidable lady, you did not argue with her but I did. I wasn’t going to have anyone stick a needle in me and rob me of one eighth of my body ‘s blood. NO WAY. We are speaking here of February 1974, forty-seven years ago. If I had not been such a pathetic coward today would not be my 30th donation but my 141st !

It is said that a donation of blood can save up to 3 lives. 363 lives my failure to donate blood in earlier years did not help.

Saturday will be Rebekah’s 38th birthday. She died unexpectedly four years ago as of May. Throughout her childhood she was in and out of hospital having one operation after another, every one involving a blood transfusion and yet my cowardice persisted.

Yes, I am now a blood donor and today is my thirtieth donation. I am please about that but it does not change the fact that I am a coward.

I will leave it there  Let’s have SMILE OF THE DAY. Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of your life.

That is special. Do you not agree ?

Words !  Yesterday I hit a new record for the day writing 15,317 bringing my total to 359,349. Writing in POETS CORNER allow me to share something I penned yesterday about the poet William Wordsworth.

Forgive me, I am smiling. William Wordsworth – WORDSWORTH what a perfect name for a poet. What are the words of poet William worth ?  Priceless. The wealthiest person in the world could not afford to buy them. But they are not for sale: they are yours, they are mine William has gifted them to us all for free.

I am about to add this priceless poem from William to the anthology.

The Solitary Reaper BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Behold her, single in the field,

Yon solitary Highland Lass !

Reaping and singing by herself;

Stop here, or gently pass !

Alone she cuts and binds the grain,

And sings a melancholy strain;

O listen! For the Vale profound

Is overflowing with the sound.

 

No Nightingale did ever chaunt

More welcome notes to weary bands

Of travellers in some shady haunt,

Among Arabian sands:

A voice so thrilling ne’er was heard

In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,

Breaking the silence of the seas

Among the farthest Hebrides.

 

Will no one tell me what she sings ?—

Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow

For old, unhappy, far-off things,

And battles long ago:

Or is it some more humble lay,

Familiar matter of to-day ?

Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,

That has been, and may be again ?

 

Whate’er the theme, the Maiden sang

As if her song could have no ending;

I saw her singing at her work,

And o’er the sickle bending;—

I listened, motionless and still;

And, as I mounted up the hill,

The music in my heart I bore,

Long after it was heard no more.

How I wish I could write poetry but I can not !

Time to check out what was happening ON THIS DAY:

18th February 1954: The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

18th February 1955: Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot “Wasp” is successfully detonated in the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp was the first of fourteen test shots in the Teapot series. WHAT THE FLIPPIN’ HECK WAS THAT ALL ABOUT ?

18th February 1965: The Gambia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.

18th February 1977: The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden flight on top of a Boeing 747.

18th February 1991: The IRA explodes terrorist bombs at Padding Station and Victoria Station in London.

18th February 2010: WikiLeaks published the first of hundreds of thousand of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.

So who was born on this day ?

18th February 1952: Bernard Valcount Canadian lawyer born. NEVER EVER HEARD OF HIM ! HAVE YOU ?

18th February 1954: John Travolta born. Yep, I know who he is.

18th February 1969: Tomaz Humar Slovenian mountaineer born. DO THEY HAVE MOUNTAINS IN SLOVENIA ?

18th February 1984: Carlos Kameni Cameroon footballer born. WHERE IS CAMEROON ?

18th February 1967: J Robert Oppenheimer died. He was born in 1904.

There are those who would like us to think that there is light at the end of the tunnel with regard to china virus. I would like to be optimistic but I am finding it hard. However, for the 738 people who died yesterday and for their loved ones there is no tunnel, there is no light and there can be no optimism. 12,718 new cases yesterday and 738 deaths. Locally another 59 cases and 3 deaths.

What can I say ?  What can I write here ? Let me share a fun poem from my POETS CORNER anthology.

And again our SMILE OF THE DAY:

Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of your life.

Speak again tomorrow

Dave

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