• Predictions 2023 – How did I do?

    1  Generative artificial intelligence will become significantly disruptive of many sectors this year. Education practices will change quickly as a result of this but education will be but one of many areas of life to be affected.

    Happening all around us (even to people who can’t see it happening around them) – prediction fulfilled.

    2 No progress for those seeking marriage equality in the Church of England. There will be a lot of talk about moving towards some form of official blessings for same-sex couples which would have the effect of thwarting those seeking actual equality, making it more difficult to achieve. Further division amongst pro-gay activists in the Church of England.

    Happening exactly as predicted. The recent developments following the LLF project make equality more even further away – prediction fulfilled.

    3  Indyref 2 will not happen on 19 October 2023 as Nicola Sturgeon had hoped, which is a shame for those seeking to separate Scotland from the rest of the UK as the autumn will be the high water mark for the Indepedence movement. It will be downhill into the next General Election after that.

    Happenning but not quite as I expected. Indryref didn’t happen but Indy polls are indeed riding high. However I didn’t see the mess the SNP would get itself into along the way. Prediction Fulfilled.

    4  Trump and Biden will both declare that they intend to run for the US presidency in 2024 and American politics will continue to be all about Donald Trump.

    Exactly as I said – prediction fulfilled.

    5  Covid recovery remains bumpy, particularly through supply-chain problems due to mismanagement of Covid in China.

    Pretty much as I said – we’ve largely forgotten the supply chain issues that continued from the end of last year into the new year and the spring. Prediction mostly fulfilled.

    6 No conclusive end to the war in Ukraine this year.

    Alas. Prediction fulfilled

    7 Governments in Westminster and Holyrood will announce some kind of “new deal” for the National Heath Service.

    Holyrood here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/programme-government-2023-24/pages/5/

    Westminster: Pay – here https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/07/14/government-accepts-recommendations-from-nhs-pay-review-bodies/
    Westminster: Medicines here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/landmark-deal-to-boost-nations-health-and-save-nhs-14-billion

    Prediction fulfilled.

    8 – UK Government will not succeed in blocking Scottish Gender Recognition Reform.

    I remain surprised that the Scottish Governnent gave up on this. Prediction not fulfilled.

    9  Liam McArthur’s bill in the Scottish Parliamant to allow doctors to participate in the killing of terminally ill patients will fail to receive parliamentary approval but will receive more support than similar proposals have before.

    Bill hasn’t received approval but hasn’t gone to a vote either. Large levels of support in the media. Prediction partially fulfilled.

    10  Changes announced to the UK honours system, perhaps at the time of the Coronation, to remove references to empire. OBE becomes Order of British Excellence.

    Not happened yet. Prediction not fulfilled.

     

    Result – about 7 1/2 out of 10 this year I think. Not bad.

14 responses to “Breastfeeding in church?”

  1. Eamonn Avatar

    I’m OK with breast-feeding. But is that a tambourine I see in the background?

    1. Kelvin Avatar

      Oh, she likes her tambourines and guitars does Herself.

      1. PamB Avatar
        PamB

        It’s a lute. Pronounced lyoot by all the best choirs.

        1. Kelvin Avatar

          It is a lutenist angel playing Shine, Jesus Shine.

          1. Bob Chapman Avatar

            That might be the only time “Shine, Jesus Shine” would be appropriate to sing.

  2. Christine McIntosh Avatar

    I fear the tambourine might disturb the feeding child. Trust me. I know about this.

  3. Kennedy Avatar
    Kennedy

    Is the picture of Madonna and Child in the chapel at the Cathedral of the Isles in Millport not showing Mary breastfeeding, not too ostentatiously?

  4. Bob Chapman Avatar

    Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
    Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
    Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
    The ox and ass and camel which adore.

    http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/238450

  5. Gay Corran Avatar

    Christine is right: a rattling tambourine would distract a nursing child, particularly one as old as this appears to be! Lute music would be soothing though. Mary’s anatomy is distinctly odd. She seems to have no shoulders, and her breast is in a very peculiar place on her chest. However, we get the point: how could something ordained by God, or “nature” be offensive to anyone? When babies need feeding, they won’t wait; should mothers not go to church or to restaurants for up to two years after a birth? If page 3 type breasts loom from every newsagent’s shelves, what could be so disturbing about breasts being used for their other function?

    1. Christine McIntosh Avatar

      Er … I think you’ll find, Gay, that breastfeeding is the primary function of a woman’s breasts; any other is a creation of male fantasies.

      1. Gay Corran Avatar

        Interesting point, Christine. Although I said “other” not “secondary”. You know that tee shirt for pregnant women that goes “it began with a kiss”? When most of us got pregnant one of the two functions came into it, I’ll bet, male fantasies or otherwise! Breasts have two functions; what is extraordinary is that one is designated as so disgusting that it has to be performed in private, in a corner, or hidden under a napkin – but it’s the wrong one… Bring on the lutes and adoring angels!

  6. Janet Koch Avatar
    Janet Koch

    Hey, Jesus was breast-fed.

  7. Eamonn Avatar

    ‘Is the picture of Madonna and Child in the chapel at the Cathedral of the Isles in Millport not showing Mary breastfeeding?’ Yes, I think it does, Kennedy. It’s also the only Madonna and Child painting I like, as it shows Mary, realistically, as a bedraggled, just-delivered 16-year-old single mother. I wish it were better known.

  8. Jennifer White Avatar
    Jennifer White

    There is nothing better than these comments and this beautiful meme today. 🙂
    -a mom who nursed 2 children for 4 years total

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