There have been a number of messages coming through recently from an assortment of media. I don't agree with them all.
However, the first of them, I think we can all agree with. On of the BBC gardening programmes made the point that spring comes a good fortnight or three weeks earlier these days to most gardens. I can certainly notice it. And on the journey down to London last weekend, there were many trees and bushes already coming into leaf.
BBC 4 came up with the next message. In A History of British Art, Andrew Graham-Dixon made the point that early British art is bound up with the Church. It was the major patron, it was the major subject provider and it was the major arbiter of taste. Then came the Puritans and the major destruction of a whole aesthetic. And the few tantalising bits that remain looked quite extraordinary - earthy, Celtic, linked and rooted in a deep, mythological, spiritual past, humourous even and covered with splendid colour. A rich heritage ripped from us through the politics of religious necessity.
But more. A heritage continually denied us because of its links to a Catholic past and a religious past. I can think of no time in the past thirty years when a television programme could have talked so openly about the deep links of religion into the community. Twenty years ago, such a programme could have talked about the lost art of working people but not the lost art of a spiritual way of living. The liberal agnosticism of the cultural elite have disallowed such an appreciation.
We've also had a poster campaign telling us that we should not suffer child abuse and that Real children don't bounce back. Well, actually they do and my Rossi is a testament to that. But Real children only bounce back if you invest a lot of time and love and support in them and even then there can still be all sorts of horrible moments is not the sort of snappy message that copywriters like.
I suppose that I have been struggling with a message too. And that message is that I am a carer. And that being a carer is a full time label. And that the reason why Ross and I get good seats at the opera cheaply is to make up for that fact that other aspects of our life are curtailed through no faults of our own.
This week we also have the battle of the singles.
The world will know at last as to whether or not Gareth can knock Will off. Titter.
Giggle. Oh, it takes me right back to the early days of
Westlife.
Finally, I am indebted to Ananova as the source of this engrossing piece of world news.
Clowns Protest Demanding Society's Acceptance
Around 80 clowns in California have been protesting at society's failure to accept them. The clowns, wearing red noses, multi-coloured wigs and over-sized trousers staged the protest in Santa Cruz.
Organiser Rico Thunder says he wants people to accept clowns more readily. He said, "You're born a clown." He told the Santa Cruz Sentinel, "For those brave enough to be out as clowns, the world can be a cold and unwelcome place. As long as one clown is oppressed, no man is free."
The Million Clown March was organised by Mr Thunder and several friends - failing to reach the hoped-for numbers.
During the march, they stopped in front of a Gap shop, chanting, "Our clothes are better than yours."
As it came to the end of its route, the crowd sang, "No more chanting."