Up with snow!

Earlier this week 74 people in Egypt lost their lives and over a thousand more were injured following a football match.

Following a football match.

On hearing the reports via the BBC website and comments on Twitter, my initial reaction was one of shock, then sadness and finally anger. Anger, that members of the human race can still inflict this kind of atrocity on their own kind.

Without wishing to be too melodramatic, I was left contemplating – again – the state of the world, when something like this can still happen in this day and age, when we as human beings are supposed to have progressed and evolved beyond feral animals.

Of course, there is no answer for this and ultimately it seems to boil down to the same old thing, that people are – by and large – fine and normal as individuals, but placed within a group of people with whom we have some common ground, things will invariably take a turn for the worse or in this case; savage.

This had been banging around in my head for a couple of days and in addition, I’ve had a cold hanging over me, which hasn’t helped lighten my mood.

In general, I’ve been feeling pretty much “down with people”, what a bunch of scum bags we are etc. and then as I was going into the cinema with my daughter on Saturday, the snow started to fall.

On completion of the instantly forgettable film, we went back outside and joined the winter wonderland. We walked home quickly to collect the sledge I’d bought via a colleague a couple of months ago and headed up and over to the castle and promptly stepped back in time to a more innocent age.

There were plenty of other people who’d had the same idea as us and were flying down the hill on a wide variety of plastic sledges, wooden toboggans and a large sheet of plastic.

My daughter was quickly off and in hindsight we were probably a little hasty in starting from the top of the hill as, shortly after hitting terminal velocity, she flew into some bushes and came out a little shaken, a little annoyed at me but determined to carry on.

I digress. She carried on sledging and each time she trudged back up the hill, I took the time to look at those people around us and something struck me. All those people of varying degrees of age (and ability) were laughing, smiling and generally having some good old fashioned fun.

Light hearted banter followed a spectacular wipe out and there was genuine concern from one would-be entrant to the luge after he’d mounted a fellow slider by accident.

Where ever you looked, people were looking out for each other, taking care not to career into one another or get in the way of someone else’s run.

In short: people were being nice to each other!

Being part of that rare snowy experience has lightened my cloudy mood and served as a timely reminder that at our best we are kind, compassionate and respectful of our fellow travellers on this journey to who-knows-where.

However, rather than having to wait for that perfect winter day, imagine what kind of place the world would be if the human race could show that same kindness, compassion and respect throughout the year?