Dung heap

A fountain will water the valley of acacias (Joel 3:18) 
The blessing of God foretold in Joel is so great it waters even the driest and washes even the dirtiest of places. One such place is the Valley of Shittim or valley of acacias, where Israel fell to the moral temptations of the Moab people, and whence Israel escaped to invade the promised land. The name of the valley is a happy accident, but rather usefully encapsulates the greatness of the flood needed to wash it clean. So, as I ponder the mess we have got ourselves into, I wonder what kind of flood will be needed to get us clean. 
The latest ONS statistics estimate that, so far, during the crisis, in England and Wales, 57,961 more  people have died than is usual for this time of year. There are clever ways to make these statistics smaller but the likelihood is that these are all related to COVID-19 in some way or another. And they don't even include Scotland and Northern Ireland. 
The latest news of our future trading partnership with the US leaves little doubt that we will be forced to accept, and I list, chicken flesh washed with chlorine to compensate for the filthy conditions in which it is raised and processed, meat from cattle and pigs that have been injected with long acting growth hormones, vegetables sprayed with 72 pesticides that are banned in the UK, food colourings that have been linked to hyperactivity in children, baby food with no limits on sugar and cow’s milk with twice as much pus as currently allowed (though why we allow any pus in our milk I'd love to know). And that's only the headline grabbers.
And what has got us here? Well I have to say that I'm really not sure. It would be easy to blame the current government and they do need to take much of the responsibility of course, but I'm not convinced it can all be laid at their door. I wonder if we as a nation have become proud, our heads expanded by grand visions of our place in the world both past and future, and so have lost our ability to make meaning from the place we actually find ourselves in. From strange wars in distant lands to odd hopes for lost freedoms, we have looked to a fantasy world of global influence and moral authority, then, like sand through our fingers, the harder we try to grasp it the more quickly if slips away.
I could of course be utterly wrong in all this. We are really in the valley of acacias, a place of beautiful flowers and sweet smells. But it doesn't look that way at the moment, that's for sure.

An inviting ladder, but with nothing to support it

Location: United Kingdom

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