A good weekend...

It felt like the start of the holidays this weekend (though I still have to work for while yet...) All the family are home, as Ant is back from University, and Bernie and Charlie are back from their orchestra trip to Italy.

So went to adoration and confession first thing on Saturday (and how great it is that my teenage girls still see this as the best way to start a weekend - marvellous example for Charlie and Dominique). Then had a relatively quiet day at home until later in the afternoon when we went to the local County Show.

Last year, we won a number of prizes (well Anna, her mum and the kids did - I have no appropriate talents...) but this year we didn't win a thing (though I thought Bernie was unlucky not to win with her painting or her photography, and Anna didn't win with her muffins simply because they went for chocolate over fruit...but perhaps I'm biased).

In the evening went to see Toy Story 3 in the evening, which we all enjoyed enormously.

Today we went to the Extraordinary Form of Mass at Lancaster Cathedral - and this time you could really hear the impact of Nick Gale's training workshop: the Schola sang better than I have ever heard them before.

And this afternoon, we've packed Charlie and Dominique off to Sail Camp to improve their sailing - and Bernie is there as an assistant instructor. And has a summer job, so can't help at sail camp this year - but as her summer job is teaching sailing, she's not too disappointed...

Easter Celebrations

We went to the Vigil Mass last night: the new fire kindled outside the Church and spread among the faithful candle by candle until the whole Church was filled with the light of the Risen Christ! Had to sing the Regina Caeli walking back to the car, as it had not been included in the Mass.

Then today, we had a cooked breakfast (a rare treat) with sausage and bacon (as well as eggs from a local farm) to celebrate the end of Lent and our vegetarian diet. The table was decorated,as ever on Easter day, with an Easter tree - photo to follow once the camera is charged!

After breakfast, the kids found all but two of the small eggs hidden in the garden in our traditional Easter Egg Hunt, while Anna made a Simnel Cake. the kids and I then played Ultimate Frisbee, under Ant's loving instruction: boys v. girls - Charlie and I beat Ant, Bernie and Dominique 5 - 0!

After a light lunch we took Goldie for a walk in the country (we had been planning a stately home garden visit with Grandma, but she didn't feel up to it in the event, so we will save that for another day).

After a fabulous tea (and wine!....), watched a Poirot DVD with grandma; then said bedtime prayers with the kids, sang the Regina Caeli and the Victimae Paschali, and am now sat wondering about doing the washing up...

It's not the same...

Charlie has announced he wants to watch Shaun of the Dead, as some of his friends have and said it was very funny.

So I hired it and watched it myself first. I did think it very funny in parts. But the language is appalling.

Bernie, who has been watching my deliberations with wry amusement points out that there are no words in it that Charlie will not have heard (and probably hears frequently) at school.

However, my contention is that it's not the same. For me to allow him to watch the film would be parental sanctioning of his exposure to such language: that sends a different message from the fact that there are foul-mouthed kids at school.

A similar argument applies to classroom discussions of sex and perversion: it's one thing to hear about these things behind the bike sheds, but I really don't think the teachers should be legitimising such discussions.

The Distorting Mirror

I've just been on a media training course: great fun, culminating in a day in a TV studio being interviewed several times and watching the results.

One of the things that struck me was how dreadful a profession journalism is. The journalists and broadcasters running the course were drumming home two things: one is that if it isn't 'a good story', it isn't news; the other is that it must be told simply as people will not attend to anything for very long.

By 'a good story', essentially they mean it has to be conflict-ridden; and by 'simply' they mean in short words, short sentences, and a short time overall.

All of which I knew already, but hearing it in such stark terms - and working with people whose professional skill is to package information in that way and discard information which doesn't fit that model - made me reflect again on what a distorting mirror our media are.

This distortion, in favour of over-dramatising and over-simplifying, is then amplified by the media culture; it struck me anew that a particular type of person is drawn to work in the media (or possibly that working in the media results in one becoming a particular type of person); and that is typified by the BBC culture,w here they all associate so much with themselves and their types that they genuinely do not see the bias that they bring to everything: they are genuinely outraged when any one suggests that they have any bias: yet to the outside observer with a different set of prejudices, their bias is obvious, persistent and consistent.

As a father, one of the things i have worked hard at is protecting my kids from being damaged by the prevalent culture: hence counter-cultural father. A key part of my strategy has been to minimise their reliance on the mainstream media as sources of information and comment. We have no TV, we don't have a paper every day, we listen to the radio news infrequently; we do talk about news and current affairs (a bit) at home and discuss it from our perspective. We watch films rather than TV (among other reasons, films demand a longer attention span: TV's crazy pace is one of its stuctural problems!), and choose them with some care, watch them together and talk about the implications of the stories, including the moral implications and the attitudes underlying the characters and their decision.

Above all we encourage the kids to think about things themselves, to challenge received ideas and opinions, and to do so from within a framework of beliefs, opinions and attitudes which we set, rather than those who think the key attributes of reality are conflict and simplicity (and a BBC worldview)...

Black

Anna and I treated ourselves to a DVD over half term. We watched it in a couple of installments in the evenings, once the kids were in bed (or on their way there at least...). It was Black: an Indian film about a girl who is blind and deaf, and her extraordinary teacher. The first half is based on the childhood of Helen Keller; the second is largely fictitious.

It was a very powerful and moving film, slipping intriguingly between Hindi and English languages (yes, we had the sub titles on!) Well worth watching. You can see the details here.

Fiddler on the Roof

On Sunday evening, we watched Fiddler on the Roof. It is one of Ant's favourite films (she loves musicals). I was struck afresh by the tensions between the traditions which kept the Jewish community together and the legitimate aspirations of the younger generation for some say in their own future.

A powerful and thought-provoking film: and some great songs!

Casablanca

As a treat for the last night of the holidays (it's not really, but tomorrow night we'll be travelling to an EF Mass for the (real) feast of the Epiphany) we watched Casablanca. I'd been given it for Christmas, so you can see the strength of my will power that it had remained unwatched until today.

We put up the big screen and hitched up a projector and speakers to my Mac, so it was a proper film showing (this is what we do to make up for no TV!)

The kids, who had been shocked that I could read How to Live For ever without shedding a tear, were astonished to find the tears rolling down my cheeks during the film... But they seemed to enjoy it, too. As did Anna's mum, and Anna herself, of course.

I hadn't seen it for years, and was a little worried that it might not be as great as I had remembered. But it was greater.