Feel the Force

Force 1 - Evil Forces

A phone caller was worried about an issue which I gave him some advice about. He continued...'You all believe in God and the bible and stuff don't you because I think evil forces are at work.' To which I replied that I could help him with regard to his issue but if he wanted to talk to someone about evil forces at work that he would have to phone back the next morning after nine and someone could accomodate him.

All a bit matter of fact really when you come to think of it, I could have been talking about anything....ring back later and someone can help you with your evil forces at work...and he didn't even phone back next morning.

Force 2 - The Unknown 'Them'

Emma told me about P who standing outside our building told her about 'them', the people who were always 'up there' pointing upstairs, who never invited him...never let him 'up there'. Emma explained that he wasn't being 'left out' or being kept in the dark, 'up there' was the youth centre and that it was for young people and the downstairs was for him, there was no conspiracy.

Force 3 - Gordon felt the Force

Mary's spur of the moment reflection, before club was to gather the 5 other workers (all women) around Gordon, place their hands on him and each in turn wish him well in his move from our centre. It got very hot in the office, especially for Gordon with all those hands on him.

Force 4 - Gale Forces

We didn't really finish club tonight, it kind of continued to the point we invited the young people to participate in our evaluation. Sarah came up with a good evaluation theme tonight. She thought seeing as the weather has been a recent topic of conversation that we could describe our night in terms of the weather. We had lots of sun shiney days, a few clouds, sunny intervals, showers, a thunder storm which clears, a cool night and a high pressure area with cumulus clouds...and there were references to wind which had nothing to do with weather.

Force 5 - Armed Forces

Re-reading 1984 (because Keeley is reading it and I want to be reminded of it so we can discuss it ...while in the middle of The Bookseller of Kabul, borrowed from Gordon and recommended by both Mary & Gordon) I thought of how the four Ministries of Truth, Love, Plenty and Peace names were a contrast to what they actually perpetuated ie. lies, fear/hate, rationing and war...there is a similar contradiction in the name Ministry of Defence.

Force 6 - Force of Nature

Man with black and white dog, was every time I had seen him on the street or at the centre, a force of nature...he seemed impelled to behave as he did and all the behaviour I saw was that of someone drawn to doing the opposite of what would have been the right thing to do in every situation. So when I saw him about to cross my path again on the street, I took a deep breath and prepared for the onslaught. But instead, a very different man, when he noticed me, quietly said 'Thank you' to me with a half-apologetic-smile and a flourish of his hand to show me how it had healed, 'No really, thank you'. And that is all he did and I was relieved and pleased that I got to see this side of him.