Delighting in Failure

We watched the curling from the winter Olympics last night. I’m not familiar with curling, but I’ve enjoyed learning the terminology, appreciating the strategy, and recognising the skill of all involved.

The GB men were in the semi-final against Switzerland. (My Scottish friends would point out that it was a Scottish team). The Swiss men took a lead. The Brits pulled back. It all depended on the final stone from the Swiss captain. He missed. We won. I found myself cheering at his failure.

I walked along the sea-front this morning. A cheerful refuse collector was pulling a wheely bin along. I chatted to him as the contents of each bin he passed were emptied into his bin.

He was followed by an exceedingly noisy flock of seagulls that swooped around him,

willing him to make a mistake, hoping that there would be spillage from a bin, providing them with their breakfast. They were disappointed. I didn’t feel well disposed to the seagulls.

I watched the news report of yesterday’s arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was suspicion of misconduct in public office. There were reports on King Charles’ statement, reference to the Epstein files, interviews with Virginia Giuffre’s family, discussion on the first arrest of a senior royal in modern history…

I understand the call for truth, justice and accountability, but sometimes I feel that we’re encourage to cheer the failure, delight in the mistake. It sometimes seems that the only good news is bad news.

I return to St Paul’s words: ‘…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.’

Instead of delighting in Swiss failure I focus on British skill; instead of complaining about pesky seagulls I recognise the good work of the refuse collector; instead of headlining – and perhaps wishing for – Andrew’s failures, I praise and appreciate the good things that other royals – Charles and Camilla, William and Kate – are doing.