Ponies, Wasps, Cuckoos and Fish

Lowestoft gets in the news for odd reasons. This week it was Lowestoft’s Miranda Worby…

When Miranda was a child, she wanted a pony. When her parents refused, she bought a ‘My Little Pony’ toy. She started collecting them. What started as a childhood hobby became serious passion. By 2018 her collection was so big that she had to move house…

Miranda’s collection of 4,550 ‘My Little Pony’s is now officially a world record. It will be in the 2027 Guinness World Records…

Cycling home, I felt a sharp pain in my upper lip. A wasp had attached itself to me and had made its presence felt. I brushed it away. On arriving home my lip was still throbbing, but there was no swelling, so there was no sympathy.

In an article headed ‘Tipsy Wasps’ our local paper reported:

‘The British Pest Control Association (BPCA) has issued a warning to families in Suffolk to avoid disturbing wasps as they consume fermented fruit. This can cause them to be “inebriated” and more likely to sting.’

I’ll never know whether my wasp was stinging under the influence…

I’m reading ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. The book’s title comes from the nursery rhyme:

Three geese in a flock
One flew East
One flew West
And one flew over the cuckoo’s nest

Set in a 1960’s psychiatric hospital – the ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ – there’s Chief Bromden, a half-Native American, rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, authoritative Nurse Ratched. It’s about control and oppression, resistance to institutional power, the struggle for individuality, and the cost of nonconformity…

This morning I read the story of Jonah. God gives Jonah instructions to go to Ninevah. Jonah doesn’t want to go, so sails in the opposite direction; he’s thrown overboard by overboard by scared sailors. I read:

‘But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah… From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.’

Musing… Little ponies, inebriated wasps, nesting cuckoos, great fish… Passionate pleasure, personal pain, preserving power… God’s presence, my prayer.