Day 93 - I'll trust the God of miracles

Writing a topical piece can be a challenge. As Harold Wilson is alleged to have said: “A week is a long time in politics”. Our webmaster asks for all submissions to be delivered to his inbox a week before publication date and personal circumstances often demand an even longer lead time. So I am cheating and looking back on events that happened on various June 5ths and examining how they look from today’s perspective.

In 1981, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first cases of what would later be known as AIDS. I can remember thinking that this heralded the end of the world as we knew it, but 44 years later, people who are treated for HIV/AIDS have a nearly normal life expectancy.

In 1967, the Six-Day War began with Israel launching a pre-emptive strike against Arab nations. Israel’s current war has lasted 607 days.

In AD70, Titus Flavius Vespasianus led his Roman legions as they breached Jerusalem’s walls. This was as Jesus predicted (Luke 21:20). Was his prediction accurate enough to persuade non-believers to believe? After all, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times!

In 1833 Ada Lovelace met Charles Babbage for the first time. Lovelace is variously described as a mathematician and a computer programmer; the first home computer in the UK appeared in 1980! Without the work of this gifted pair, what would life today look like?

Creativity features highly on June 5th: Thomas Chippendale was born in 1718 and George Bernard Shaw gave up being a Land Agent to become a writer in 1876. Let us appreciate the good in both old and new creativity.

Economic theory is also well represented: in 1883 John Maynard Keynes was born, he investigated the causes of prolonged unemployment. And in 1723 Adam Smith, philosopher and political economist was baptised. What would that towering pair have made of the 2014 statement that there are probably around 1,000 JCBs buried in London, as it is cheaper to bury them than to lift them back to street level. The estimated cost of these machines is £5 million.

I wonder what event will happen today that will go down in the history books? Who will be born or die? What stupid fact will come to light? “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” - Charles Swindoll. As I already mentioned, when I first heard about the AIDS epidemic, I thought humankind was doomed; yet I approached the Covid-19 pandemic with extreme caution but no panic. However, back in 2009, there was an H1N1 influenza pandemic. This I really dreaded because it killed younger people – about 80% of H1N1 deaths were among those under age 65.

Who knows what June 5th 2025 will bring? Hymnwriter Al B Smith wrote: I know who holds the future, and he guides me with his hand…so as I face tomorrow with its problems large and small, I'll trust the God of miracles, Give to Him my all!

Elaine Kinchin