Today started in the usual way… get up, go to the bathroom, get dressed, make myself a cup of tea… Putting the teabag in the bin, I paused, musing…
I chose a teabag, put it in hot water, threw it away. A teabag was sacrificed. I lost a teabag and gained a cup of tea. My pleasure was achieved at a cost…
…Last week Larry explained… When video recorders first became popular he bought a Betamax machine with his hard-earned savings. There was short term pleasure, but the rest of the country were buying VHS machines; his Betamax was soon redundant.
Sacrifice of savings, pleasure, a poor choice…?
…Reading ‘The Prison Doctor’… After many years as a GP, Amanda Brown becomes a prison doctor. She’s shocked by how common self-harming is amongst prisoners. ‘…over time I’d come to understand why. The loneliness, the overwhelming sense of helplessness and hopelessness, the intense feeling of claustrophobia… Guilt was also a big contributor.’
Poor choices… disposable prisoners in hot water…? Sacrificing personal comfort…?
…Yesterday, Minister-Lou at church… Told Jesus’ story about the merchant who’s looking for fine pearls. He finds the finest, and sells everything that he has so that he can buy it… I wondered what his wife thought!
He sacrifices all he has… He makes what he believes to be the best choice.
…I remembered Jim Elliott… As a child I was read the story of the Christian missionary who was killed in Ecuador. He’s often remembered for saying: ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’
Values, choices, cost, hot water, sacrifice… that Jim Elliott believed, lived and died for.
…And Jesus’ enigmatic words… ‘For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?’
Choices, cost, sacrifice… that started with a teabag.
malcolmsmusings.org 
Love the jim elliott quote, thank you. In a non spiritual side note, Larry made the smart choice – betamax was better quality than VHS – but they were better at the marketing and pricing. Low brow info but made me think of how many cases where the higher quality product gets swamped xxx Thanks for the teabag xx
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I don’t think that knowing it was better quality made Larry feel any better when there were no Betamax videos!
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Dare I mention that we use PG Tips and always compost the teabags. In fact we compost virtually anything organic except wood and leather. Even the poo from the litter tray of our two new cats that aren’t allowed outside yet.
As our compost bins are far away down the end of the garden, rats don’t bother me.
Next spring it all looks like beautiful soil. Ain’t nature wonderful?
Actually, we’re putting seed on a patio table for a poor white dove that obviously got hurt somehow. She’ll come down and feed, if no-one is there obviously. In the evening we see a smallish brown rat come and hoover up any seed that the dove knocked off of the table. I ought to put poison down but haven’t the heart. If they’re all God’s creatures do only atheists kill vermin? Discuss.
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Ahhh… The old compostable teabags. We used to do that, but then one year we must have used a different sort. They didn’t decompose and the garden was full of old teabags!
The ‘all God’s creatures’ discussion… I guess the ultimate is ‘Why do folks of any religion support the death penalty?’ Good question Alan!
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