Shorter But Nicer

[poliphilo]

I had my follow-up blood test this morning. Also I got measured and weighed. I'm 5'7" and 12st. 7oz. Don't ask me how that translates into metric. Ailz says I can't be 5'7" because she's 5'7" and I'm taller than her. Really? So we measured up against one another and our eyes are pretty much on the level. We also looked in the mirror, but it's a dressing-table mirror and we couldn't see our heads. Maybe I used to wear higher heels or something.

The nurse was in a bit of a grump. It's her afternoon off and she has a class to go to- something to do with measuring pulses in diabetic feet. "Yes," I said, shamelessly, "I don't suppose they'll have anything to tell you that you don't already know." "Well, she said, reflectively, "They usually come up with something new". She was a lot cheerier after that.

I'm trying hard to be nice to people these days.  Making a real effort.  This started before I returned to church, but I don't suppose it's unconnected. Yesterday I found myself surveying my LJ post after I'd written it- and wondering if I'd been sufficiently nice to the authors I'd critiqued.  Because Christians are unfailingly nice, right?  Ogodogodogodogod, I'm turning into Cliff Richard!

Comments

[baritonejeff.livejournal.com]

1 stone = 14 lbs.

168 lbs. 7 oz.

(Good opportunity to look that up. I've always been curious.)

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Hmph! YOu could never turn into Cliff Richard.

It's a good 'resolution' (if you want to call it that) to try to be nicer to people. Christian or not, it's a good thing to which to aspire.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

My mum reviewed a book in her LJ only to have the author, also a LiveJournalist, drop by and leave her a comment, so perhaps it's wise to be nice about them. Though most of the authors you've been enjoying lately are long gone, so not much danger of that.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

I sent AdeB an email praising his book and he answered within two hours :::small squee:::

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I understand why we switched to metric, because, after all, who counts in fourteens? But I still have no idea what a metre looks like or how much a kilo weighs.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you for those reassuring words :)

Being "nice" does make a difference- and costs very little effort.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Whoops!

It bothers me that I wasn't altogether complimentary about de Botton- though not nearly as rude as Charlie Brooker, who calls him "a slapheaded, ruby-lipped pop philosopher who's forged a lucrative career stating the bleeding obvious in a series of poncey, lighter-than-air books aimed at smug Sunday supplement pseuds looking for something clever-looking to read on the plane"—

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Bless him!

prescription for niceness

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

perhaps an occasional bit of belloc?
just occasional...
"heretics all wherever ye be
in tarbes or nimes or over the sea
ye never shall have good words from me
caritas non contarbut me."

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Unfailingly nice? Yikes! Will I be thrown out of the church, then? I try, but.......
What is a "stone" - how many kilos?

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

You see, I don't speak English. I just "talk Murrican" as H.L. Mencken used to say.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately there are lots of *un-nice* Christians around this country!

[oakmouse]

If you think Christians are unfailingly nice, I recommend a course of reading of certain prominent Christian authors such as CS Lewis (The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape Proposes a Toast and The Great Divorce ought to be a good start) and JRR Tolkien (have a shot at Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics and On Faery Stories, plus the foreword to The Lord of the Rings). Those ought to introduce you to reasoned, intelligent, and reasonable Christian snark quite nicely. ;)

Re: prescription for niceness

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Very bracing.

Belloc comes closer to the spirit of the Middle Ages than you'd think possible for a 20th century Englishman.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

How many stones to a kilo?- I haven't a clue :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Over here as well...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder.

And of course the very word "snark" originates with that intellectually wiry Anglican clergyman, Lewis Carroll.

johnsonian?

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

perhaps...the spirit of the middle
ages is a large subject I am not
very qualified in though I did like
huizinga's waning of the middle ages
about all that remains in mind is the
bright colors...
belloc certainly positioned himself as
cantankerous... perhaps in part it was like
w c fields who in fact was kind to children.

I suspect he is in this sort of thing
like samuel johnson who says that if a man
comes at you with a stick to steal your
purse you disarm and subdue him before
talking to him and all the more if someone
comes at you to argue out of your faith which
is more precious than any purse etc

Re: johnsonian?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Belloc was one of the first "grown up" writers I ever read- and I love him dearly. A curiously conflicted man- as much French as English and as fiercely catholic as he was fiercely republican. He was a rough controversialist, not above bending the facts- I believe- when fighting for one of his favourite causes.

yes

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

there is a biography I enjoyed by
wilson...andrew wilson was it?
he wrote some poorly done books also
--boilerplate, as someone gave me
his robespierre and it is no good

cruise of nora,road to rome, four
men are all fine and the verse
but it always is saddening to me how
many books I have read and how few if
any I remember in any substantial way.

I think with belloc I shoot the hippopotamus
with bullets made of platinum will remain
but that is about all.

Re: yes

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a long time since I read Belloc, but certain things remain indelible. The Four Men is my favourite- because I read it at a formative age- and because it deals with a landscape I know and love.

He once remarked, sadly and defiantly, that the only book he wrote for love- as opposed to money- was The Road to Rome.

I'm glad to hear...

[mikesmaddie.livejournal.com]

...that things went all right with your blood test on this particular day.

And I hope that you will soon get the results back.

God bless and take care. :).
Olga/Maddie

Re: I'm glad to hear...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

They're testing me for cholestrol. This is a back-up test to confirm whether the last test- which showed high cholestrol levels- was accurate.

You're...

[mikesmaddie.livejournal.com]

...very welcome. *big smile*

And thanks for letting me know about what they were testing you for.

God bless and take care. :).
Olga/Maddie