Well, here we are on the shortest day of the year.  It`s dark, it`s raining and my midwinter SADness is gaining momentum.   And I know that the season of good cheer is just around the corner when we will all be merry and bright but some truly awful things have happened of late and are still happening.  Perhaps too many to list all those that are going on around the world - Syria and the like - but closer to home we have had to endure the horror and savagery involved with the killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby, whose grieving family have been truly impressive in their restraint and dignity.  

There`s no way, of course, that any punishment dished out to his murderers will ever fit the crime, but in the same week that his killers have been found guilty, we also learnt of the unspeakable abuses carried out on the innocent by Ian Watkins, the former Lost Prophet.   He has been sentenced to 35 years in prison but again I`m not at all sure that his punishment and those of his `associates` will ever fit the degree of depravity and heartlessness perpetrated between them.

Now just these two examples here and the unending turmoil in other parts of the world lead me to wonder whether there was ever a time of such sheer brutality and barbarism. I`m sure that over the course of history there probably have been but we`re supposed to be a civilised society and we`re supposed to have learnt from history.   But we don`t appear to be doing that and I know that modern day technology and media output means that we hear and see more of the tragedies of the world than ever before but I`m still left with a feeling almost of despair that, far from becoming more civilised, humankind is becoming more and more cruel, selfish and depressingly distasteful.

Maybe it`s the shortest day.   Maybe because it`s still raining and now pitch dark.  Or maybe it`s just me?