Rector's Ramblings

The RW decided to get all romantic in the face of St Valentine's Day, and looking through the website of "I want one of those", came across novelty soap! Now you could get all sorts of things from Pope on a Rope to Hope on a Rope, which was a bit of soap carved in the image of Jesus Himself! Just the job for a Rectory Husband! However, the best laid plans... seemingly she had problems with the drop down box on the website, because what was delivered was Grope on a Rope, a big soapy hand! This has only recently come to light! The RW was covering up her mistake, rather than coming clean, so there was only the obligatory card on St V's Day!

10.30am this morning sees me in Levengrove Park with two dogs and icy rain, coming from the Clyde stinging my face and creeping through the layers onto bare skin. Ouch!

And I moaned! Thing is, I know of at least three folk who are terminally ill today and will die very soon. Just thought.... they'd love to be out in the icy wind etc etc

Well, here we go again, and another Lenten Season is underway! We had our big "party" on Sunday evening when a large group of Africans decended on us, in the evening, from Heart for the City and The Chat House in Maryhill, Glasgow. We had an African Gospel Music night!

What a wonderful noise, and everyone ended up dancing in the aisles. Now, maybe folk should indulge in more exercises like that during Lent than start giving up chocolate or sugar in your coffee?

My little cross to bear just now is the puppy! Please God, help her grow up really really quickly! I'm being driven demented by a monster!

Addiction is something we are very familiar with in Dumbarton. It
could be argued that the whisky industry, employing as it did a
large chunk of the population from time to time, had something
to do with it! Cheap whisky was easy to come by, (it still is), and the number of pubs in Dumbarton itself, certainly catered for those who had a propensity towards enjoying a “good swallow”, or had the misfortune to have an addictive personality. I don’t think I know of one family in the town that has not been affected by addiction in one form or another.

For the oldies among us, the problem came in the form of alcohol abuse, and many youngsters are following in the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers, and mothers and grandmothers too, but
we now live in a community where the drug of choice, among the young, is not alcohol, but heroin, valium, cocaine, amphetamines, and the rest! The drug of choice has changed, but the effects of addiction are no different, and it’s not just the user who is suffering, but the whole family.

I have already said very publicly that, in my opinion, Dumbarton and The Vale has a drug problem far out-weighing the problems I came across in Possilpark in the eighties, and at that point, Possil was reckoned to have more addicts per head of population than any other community in Europe! I checked this feeling out
with someone else who is working in the West of Scotland “scene” recently, and they reckoned I wasn’t far wrong. West Dunbartonshire’s statistics do not make pretty reading. Very few families in our community are untouched by drug misuse or its consequences.

This is why, as a congregation, we are reaching out in
any way we can to support those in trouble, and try to
support people in despair, either because of their own
habit, or because of drug misuse in their own families.
We did this, initially, by offering premises to Alterna-
tives, probably the main provider of addiction services
in West Dunbartonshire, and now that they have estab-
lished themselves in a superb base in the town centre,
we are offering a similar deal to Families United, a
support group which has recently been formed.

I would want it to be known that I ap-
plaud and support any initiative in our community that
responds to the incredible need that’s out there! Path-
ways is another group, church based and ecumenical,
which in its small way is also doing incredibly positive
things in the addiction field.

Families United, though, is a group I want to support
and encourage. Our community needs as much input
as possible if we are going to make any impact on the
epidemic which surrounds us. I listen to mums break-
ing their hearts over their kids and my own heart
bleeds for them. It can’t be pleasant watching your son
or daughter slowly killing themselves. The group have
no funding in place and are grateful for the premises
and the opportunity to huddle together when the going
gets tough for any of them.

Many of the youngsters are desperate for help, and a
high proportion of them are offered methadone as a
means of breaking free of illegality, and with the hope
that eventually a reduction programme can be put in
place to enable them to live drug-free lives. The debate
over methadone maintenance is on the table at
present, and will continue to be a political, as well as a
medical issue, for some time to come. Its supporters
consider my personal opinion on methadone mainte-
nance naïve, but I feel it amounts to giving out free
beer to the alcoholic, whose preferred drink is whisky.
After a few beers, a wee whisky sounds like an attrac-
tive proposition. However, if it’s your desire to con-
tinue to stay “comfortably numb”, methadone, plus
whatever, is a good option. In saying that, there is no
doubt that it’s a successful way to treat addiction in a
small number of cases, but it’s certainly not the “be all
and end all”. Of course this is my personal opinion,
but one that is shared by some top academics in the
addiction field.

The truth is that we need to provide more detox and
rehabilitation units, healthy living centres and training for employment, if we are going to have any signifi-
cant success at all. A young addict may have to wait
months for a place in a rehabilitation unit, and even
then, local budgets are so tight that only a select few
will get the opportunity for long term rehab. I don’t
think this is acceptable, and we need to invest now in
more and more facilities for those who genuinely want
to get “clean” and stay “clean”! This is going to re-
quire a massive cash injection from the Scottish Exec-
utive, but unless something is done, and done soon,
thousands upon thousands of families will continue to
live in despair and hopelessness.

Between young Peanut, and the busiest month I've had in the parish for years, I've let my Blog go somewhat! Memo to self.... get organised, get disciplined!

Toilet training has been a nightmare, not just for me, but for the wee one too! Step forward the RW with all the newest technology, and produces "Training Pads" which look like big nappies and you shove them on the floor, either by the door or in the kitchen at night. Now these things cost an arm and a leg, and so I decide that newspapers are just as good, but I prefer just keeping the back door open! (Not at night, mind you!) So now Peanut has three options and is getting confused. I watched from a distance today as she traipsed in from the garden, went to the kitchen, stood on newspaper, then went back to the door, (still open of course, and it's bl**** cold), and piddled on the mat! Expensive tastes this dug!

She and Toastie are now good pals, thankfully, so World War III has been averted!

It's my birthday today! Peanut, shitty as she is, is one of the most wonderful presents of my 52 years, and I'll treasure her! Toastie is coming around, and maybe by next week we'll manage a photo of them both together!

I'm still suffering dreadfully from the cold that the RW and I brought back from the flight from The Gambia. This is probably why there has been little written about my trip, but, hey! There is lots to come once I'm feeling better.

This January just seems full of sickness, and there are few families in the parish who are not affected by something. Three terminal cancer folk I know of in the past fortnight. Kind of puts my Gambian cold into perspective!