Wednesday

The Seagull in Jersey - A Dose of Encouragement


While Fred has been travelling a lot these months
I had pulled out my box set of Bergerac Dvds which I had never found time to watch and settled in most evenings to watch an episode or two from this old Detective Series from the 1980s before going to bed.





First thing I had noticed was how much the young John Nettles who played the character Bergerac (he also played Chief Inspector Barnaby in Midsomer Murders in more recent years) looked like my middle son. So I had some fun teasing Daniel about that.


Then I got to thinking about the Island of Jersey where the series had been set (and filmed) realizing that even though we had once had a holiday there I didn't remember any of the sites of the island.  Of course that holiday was a long long time ago, maybe around 20 years ago.

There is one thing about that holiday that none of us will ever forget.


It has nothing to do with the sights of Jersey.

It has nothing to do with any activities that we had great fun in doing on Jersey.


My only real memory of Jersey was 

the 
Seagull.


Photo credit - Pixabay


This is how I picture that seagull to always be.


I never think of it as one of those almost comical trotting birds you see as they hobble along over the sand or rocks.

I will not even imagine it in a group of seagulls like we often see hovering down ready to catch a fish in the sea.



Photo credit - Pixabay



Yes I always remember it to be


an angry bird,

who saw something,

wanted it

and 

took it!


We were each enjoying a large ice-cream 
when this seagull swooped down out of no-where 
and stole my brother-in-law's ice-cream from his hand.



It was so sudden, so quick, it was almost unbelieveable except that we had seen it with our own eyes.

It must have been such a startling, frightening surprise for Victor as he was holding the ice-cream close to his face when it happened.


Now I can hardly see a seagull without thinking of that event.

I always view seagulls as untrustworthy, callous creatures because of that single event.

Will my impression of them ever change?

Not very likely.


Does my impression of the people I meet ever change?
Does that bad impression stay with me forever?

or

Does another person's impressions of me ever change?
Does that bad impression stay with them forever?


I hope not.


Sometimes it may be difficult to shrug off those impressions because of further meetings or time spent with a person if there is more evidence of their behaviour being similar to the first time.

Sometimes it may be easy to change our minds and see someone in a better light because of getting to know them better and seeing different facets of their behaviour.

But for most of us most of the time those bad impressions are hard to forget.


So do I want to be remembered like






Do I want to be seen as the one who saw something, wanted it, and stole it away?


Did I steal someone's ice-cream?


Do I want to be seen as the one who had to be better than others?


Do I want to be seen as the one who knew more than others?


Do I want to be seen as the one who is more important than others?


Do I want to be seen as the one who stole the attention from others?





Do I want to be seen as the one who was jealous of others?


Because that's what it may boil down to - us simply being jealous.

So we feel the need
  • to say something to show we know more than others
  • to do something that makes us appear better than others
  • to do something to draw the attention away from others
  • to speak of someone to make them appear less worthy than us 

We need to steal away, from them, the favour we want for ourselves.


Do we want all the favour for ourselves?


Truthfully, within us, we can all be jealous of others 
but if we recognise this human failing in ourselves
and then determinedly step away from it 
and do not act on it in any way; 
we can defeat that jealousy, 
conquer that jealousy 
and 
be more like the person God has created us to be.