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Ben Hughes's BlogPosted by Ben Hughes Something hit me with startling realisation last weekend while at a friend’s wedding – my family are so important to me. It’s not that I hadn’t realised this before, it’s just that it took the weekend away for it to sink in; away from the work, the stress and the hassle and some valuable thinking time as a replacement. Well, it was during that time that I realised how much work I’ve recently been putting into my day job and how little it’s appreciated and how little I’ve got back in return. So priorities have changed (hopefully for good) and I’ve pledged to spend more time with my family. It should also give me more time to relax and actually do things that give me pleasure rather than live with the unadulterated stress of work. The problem with stress is that it’s self-destructive and doesn’t offer anything in return. So why is it so easy to suffer from stress but so hard to lose? Maybe it’s because it’s so easy to get absorbed into and once absorbed it’s so difficult to see the light. I’m just pleased I have such an understanding family and a God who has helped me readjust my priorities. It has certainly helped put things into perspective and doesn’t offer anything in return. So why is it so easy to suffer from stress but so hard to lose? Maybe it’s because it’s so easy to get absorbed into and once absorbed it’s so difficult to see the light. I’m just pleased I have such an understanding family and a God who has helped me readjust my priorities. It has certainly helped put things into perspective. Posted by Ben Hughes The last few weeks I seem to have bombarded with illness and have struggled to find full health. I managed to pick up some infection and lost a voice for a short time and now am s-l-o-w-l-y getting over a sickness bug which seems to be sweeping the UK quicker than a tsunami. And isn’t it strange that when you have some time to yourself there seems to be plenty of time to relax, but once you start working again there’s no time to do anything. I’m not quite sure which state of mind I’m in yet. I’m well enough to do bits of work and still trying not to think too much about the mountain of work to catch up on from the last few weeks. Still, if nothing else, it might give me a chance to upload some articles here. The latest one is about the anti-God campaign started by the British Humanist Association and supported by Professor Richard Dawkins; which in itself has given me ideas about Richard Dawkins. Do I dare write what I want to write about him? Surely he’s heard worse and he must be used to it. He certainly wouldn’t like it. Oh, go on then, you’ve pushed me into it...watch this space. Posted by Ben Hughes In the summer, Colin Harvey, Feature Writer of Suite 101’s Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fiction section, contacted me about writing a book review. And I had to admit I was caught in two minds. Not being a big fan of science fiction, the prospect of reading a whole book of science fiction was something I was unsure about, despite it Christian bias. But it was something I decided to try. After all, if I didn’t like it I would know for the future. But how surprised I was. Having never been a fan of Star Trek, Doctor Who or anything really remotely sci-fi, I finally found science fiction which was accessible and interesting. A mixture of time travel, genetic mutations, evangelism and a future look at the church brought intrigue, fascination and a whole host of philosophical questions. It all showed me that science and religion don’t have to be as intolerant of each other as Richard Dawkins and a religious fundamentalist. Instead, tolerance is about respect, understanding and appreciation; it’s about putting differences aside and finding some common ground, which is just what good Catholic science fiction does. And with Infinite Space, Infinite God, Karina and Robert Fabian have shown me just how common this ground can be.
Posted by Ben Hughes All of sudden, I’ve been working day and night and I’m still trying to catch up with myself from the start of the week. I’m now spending my week teaching between two different sites on opposite sides of the town so it means lots of driving around and not much time to prepare and mark work in between. I’m certainly finding out what it means to be organised. It’s also a time where there’s a lot of change. I’m teaching in a new building with a new intake of pupils; new technology, most of which hasn’t been working properly yet; and a new syllabus to get used to. My son’s also started nursery, so it’s a time for us all to adjust to; and some of us are adjusting to it better than others. With windows being replaced in our house to add to the confusion, it just another thing which is new and exciting. But with everything changing it just leaves me thinking about getting stuck into some writing. But where’s the time? Isn’t everyone supposed to have one book in them? I seem to have dozens of books coming and going, but there’s one which just keeps coming back. Maybe if I can just find some time from somewhere...
Posted by Ben Hughes It’s been another summer holiday which has flown by and now I’m back at work I’m wondering where the British summer’s gone. The weather’s miserable, the days are getting shorter and I’m still trying to catch up with my work. It’s also the last week before my son starts at pre-school. I can’t believe the time goes so fast: one minute he’s in nappies, the next he’s desperate to start at school. I’ve spent my holiday, as usual, visiting family and friends and this year I’ve had the added bonus of straightening my garden. Planting, cutting and digging – not the best jobs to do while dodging the rain, but a real sense of achievement now it’s nearly there. Unfortunately the rain’s been so constant, so have the slugs and snails and the weeds, so let’s hope the plants do just as well. But for some reason I just never seem to be able to catch up with all the writing I want to do. I spent some time towards the end of my holiday writing articles and organising myself, only to leave one article on my Mum’s computer – typical. Never mind, I have more to keep me busy and have also recently been asked to write a book review for a collection of Catholic science fiction. See it here first soon. Posted by Ben Hughes I’m now in the middle of my holiday and have recently been to visit old university friends, one of whom we haven’t seen for nearly eight years. The time seems to go so quickly and we really should’ve met up before now, but living at different ends of the country it’s been too difficult. Apart from that, I’ve been catching up on some writing (much needed after the last few months) and am slowly beginning to wind down in my first real break from work since Easter. But I’m also only just over a week away from starting back at work again so I know I won’t be able to relax completely now. I wish I had more time for writing during my holidays and really had a lot planned but visiting friends and family has to take priority and soon took over. Thanks to my trusty laptop I can now work anywhere at any time, which is a huge relief compared to the old PC. Whatever did I do before laptops and wireless broadband? To sound like a complete techno geek with no life, it really has made things a lot easier and also means I can spend more time with my family. Just in time to go back to work. Posted by Ben Hughes After moving house last summer, I was desperate to start work in the garden and create something for our son and dog to run around in and get some nice plants as well. In the occasional dry few hours since the late spring, I’ve been in the garden moving a lot of earth, digging things out and putting things in. We had some turf laid in the spring so it was about time I straightened the rest of the garden. My dog broke her leg in April and that meant she needed a lot of care after (expensive) special orthopaedic surgery. Thankfully she’s doing well. Her leg has healed well and we’ve now had her spayed as well just so she doesn’t have to go through the trauma of having puppies and we don’t have to go through the trauma of having the puppies – there’s no way I could sell any or give them away so it was more out of necessity than anything else. Now I’m trying to spend as much time as possible with my family. My son starts nursery in a few weeks so it’s all change in our house – something he’s really looking forward to. Posted by Ben Hughes I can’t believe it’s been so long, so I’m back posting articles again after what seems like ages of being too busy to think of anything. I’ve had a summer marking exams and trying to solve numerous problems with an online marking system, while desperately trying to meet my deadlines. Then it was marking exams at my school and trying to organise myself for the new school year. It’s now over half way through my summer holiday and time seems to be moving so quickly. Why is it that time speeds up when we’re not at work and only goes at half speed when we are? I’m still waiting for the great British summer to start and some nice, warm sunshine. But the rain has hardly stopped and it means we’re stuck indoors all the time – no good for anyone. At least it gives me a chance to catch up on some jobs around the home, those sorts of things which have been hanging on for ages and never seem to get done. The trouble is, now I’ve got time to do them, I just want to have a break from everything. Best of all, I can catch up on some writing on these rainy days so keep your eyes open and start adding some comments. What would you like to see? Drop me an email and let me know. Posted by Ben Hughes I was taking my dog for a walk through the local wood last week and we met a couple of women with another dog. The two dogs were running around and playing with each other, rolling on the floor and dashing backwards and forwards. Everything seemed lovely in the warm summer evening. Then suddenly I heard my Bessie yelping and screaming in pain. I ran over and she was lying on her side making the worst noise I’ve ever heard from an animal. To cut a long story short, I took her to the emergency vet and eventually found out she’d broken her leg with one of the worst and most painful breaks she could’ve suffered. After spending a lot of money (and I’m talking thousands of pounds), she’s finally back home and on the way to a full recovery. It’ been a difficult week, but at least she should be okay. There was talk of having to amputate her leg or even have her put down if things were that bad. We look at her now and think things could’ve been a lot worse. As bad as it sounds, having to remortgage maybe isn’t that bad after all. Sometimes, it’s things like this which help put other things into perspective. Posted by Ben Hughes Suddenly it’s the end of April and the year’s edging out of springtime and towards summer. Where has the last few months gone? As you’ve probably seen, I haven’t updated this site for a while. What’s been happening? Well, it’s been a combination of things but hopefully I’m getting things back on track now. I’ve never hidden the fact I don’t like my day job and I’ve been searching for new employment, so far unsuccessfully because of the lack of jobs in my area at the moment. But I’ve still be looking and filling in application forms as much as I can. I also had a car crash a few weeks ago – nothing too bad but it was a bit of a shock, especially when I thought of what could’ve happened. I took on some new writing work which took up a lot of time and to make everything worse, my puppy chewed through the lead of my laptop and the first replacement lead was faulty. I worked when I can on my old computer but it’s so slow I can hardly get it working most of the time. All in all, it’s been one rollercoaster over the past couple of months. I’ve managed to write some articles and now all I need to do is upload them. So watch this space and email me with ideas and comments to help improve the site. Posted by Ben Hughes I’m just coming to the end of another week off work and as usual I’ve probably been busier this week than I usually am. It’s been a week of seeing family, straightening my garden out and spending most of my time writing articles. I say I’ve been straighten my garden out, but I really mean making a mess. Why do we have to make a mess before we make things tidier again? I’m now stuck with a garden of mud until some turf is put down again and my dog loves digging in the earth and getting muddy. And why is it you can never get hold of workmen when you need to? It’s either them not turning up to give a quote or not turning up to do the work. Sometimes I think it would be quicker for me to do it all myself. But at least I’m safe and my family’s safe; there are some things I take for granted and our safety is one of them. Read this week’s article and see how you would feel if you had death threats made against you because of your beliefs. It would certainly put my muddy back garden and missing workmen into perspective. Posted by Ben Hughes Today has been my last day at work for over a week as I look forward to another week off work. In many ways, it seems as though it’s only been a short time since the last one, but the six weeks which are just coming to an end remind me that they don’t come around too quickly at all. How many other jobs are people expected to put up with being shouted at, sworn at or assaulted on a daily basis? It’s no wonder so many people are leaving the teaching profession. But then I don’t expect all schools are the same as the one I work at – and I don’t expect all school management teams would put up with pupils at their schools the way that mine do and refuse to do anything about it. So if you disagree with something, are you the sort of person to speak out against it or just put up with it? And what if it threatened to cause a split in your whole organisation? It’s just this sort of thing which some Anglican Churches are doing after years of feeling ignored and sidelined. The future of the whole Church is now at risk – more because of itself than any outside influence. Read the article here. Posted by Ben Hughes With just a week of work left until the holidays, it can’t come quick enough. A bit of peace and quiet, a bit of a life back and, hopefully a bit of time to relax. One thing which is really starting to bug me at school is the moment is the complete lack of interest of some pupils in the life of others. It’s been the same old comments this week: why do we have to study religion? I don’t want to know about anyone else. I don’t care about anyone else. It’s the same old story. One girl even told me that in her four years at school, she’d only ever studied Muslims in RE and never once studied her own religion; but when I asked her what religion she is, she said she didn’t know but proudly announced she doesn’t believe in God anyway. So who are the first ones to complain about prejudice and discrimination against them? The same people who give it out to others. Somehow it wasn’t surprising when the anti-Archbishop of Canterbury comments started to hit the news. But it also makes me wonder how accepting these people are of other groups. Read the article here and add your comments. Posted by Ben Hughes I can’t believe that it’s February already and all those January blues are slowly fading away with Christmas seeming like a lifetime ago. The days are beginning to get lighter but now the weather in the UK is changing again – gales, rain and threats of snow, some of which has already fallen and caused problems in different parts of the country. I went to one of my climate change group meetings this week and it’s amazing how quickly climate change is becoming such a major international issue. We’re running a series of local talks and I’m doing the first one on Transition Towns which is an idea to make communities more local and sustainable in economic and environmental terms. Just as it appears as though the climate changing groups are lobbying for nothing, people are now suddenly taking notice. We’ve gone from a persecuted group to one which is still small but is slowly making ground as it looks as though we might be talking some sense after all. Check out the discussion on the discussion board and add your comments. Also have a look at this week’s article about religious discrimination in Armenia to see how people are still being persecuted for what they believe in. Posted by Ben Hughes After a very difficult start to the week in which I really didn’t feel like bothering getting out of bed, my old dog died and now it’s suddenly the weekend again. I don’t know what it was towards the end of last week but I was feeling quite melancholy and lethargic and was getting totally and utterly fed up with my day job. My feelings didn’t improve over the weekend and by the start of this week, I felt as though I’d finally had enough of it. To make it worse, I had a phone call from my Mum to say that our dog had finally died after years of getting older, deafer and blinder. It didn’t make it much easier though, especially for my Mum. So I was quite surprised when my week started picking up after that. Apart from the obligatory fight I had to break up at work it turned out to be quite a calm run down to the weekend. Long may it continue. At least it seems to have been a bit of a calmer week that Tom Cruise’s one. His last seven days have seen him involved in more Scientology controversy. Read the article to find out more. Posted by Ben Hughes How often do you hear a writer is too busy for words? Well this week it’s just been one of those weeks for me. I’ve started some more writing work and with extra (day) work as well, it’s been a week which in some ways has just whizzed by and suddenly it’s the weekend again. I’ve spent the evenings writing short articles and another evening out with my day job which has meant late nights and early mornings and now my head feels as though I haven’t slept all week – which is just about right. The more time goes by the more I realise how much I love writing. It’s the sort of thing I’d love to do more and if I worked in a normal job I’d probably have the time to do it. But at the moment it’s just not possible to spend any more waking hours away from my family. One good thing that happened this week was I took my son to work with me on Wednesday afternoon. It was an attempt to show pupils that if a 2 year old can do what he can, what can God do? I’m glad to say that Sam was perfect and enjoyed every minute of it. I suppose it just goes to show that teaching can be good fun after all. Posted by Ben Hughes My first week back at work after a holiday is always something I never look forward to and it always takes me a few days to get back into the swing of things again. This week was no different from any other and the first few days seemed to drag with memories of before the holidays with rudeness, swearing and bad attitudes from most of the little darlings I teach. But before I knew where I was it’s suddenly the weekend and I’m at home for a couple of days. And it’s strange how much everyone looks forward to just two days at home – and how quickly they go by compared to days at work. I keep thinking there must be more to life than counting away the days so I’ve spent most of the week working on new writing projects. I’ve joined a new writing community at Helium and will hopefully be able to reach new heights and new markets. If nothing else it’s another route of escapism from the daily grind and keeps my dream alive of an early retirement – okay, I did say it was only a dream.. I hope you’ve all had a good start to the New Year and all the best for 2008. Posted by Ben Hughes Christmas now seems a lifetime ago and people are busy making New Year’s resolutions as even the beginning of January feels longer ago than the five days it really is. I was half expecting, or hoping, that I’d get stuck at the other end of the country with the snow that was being forecast this week but nothing really materialised so it meant a long drive home from the south coast to the north west after spending time with family. For some reason, the threat of snow always brings Britain to a standstill – motorways shut, cars abandoned power supplies down. But this Christmas there’s been nothing to mention so far. So it was a long drive home and now I’m left to get ready for work on Monday. I can’t believe that two and half weeks can go so quickly and I never seem to have as much time during my holidays as I think I’ll have. Not being someone who believes in New Year’s resolutions I haven’t made any. But I just want to wish everyone all the best blessing and wishes for 2008. Let’s hope it’s better in every way than the year just gone. |
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