BBC Radio Leicester Thought for the Day
© John Denney 29 September 2004
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PRESENTER |
We have in the studio this morning the world’s oldest man. I understand you fell asleep exactly 100
years ago and you’ve only just woken up. |
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W.O.M. |
Indeed. |
|
PRESENTER |
What changes have you noticed, now that you’ve had a chance to
catch up? |
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W.O.M. |
Well,
when I fell asleep there was no radio, and no television, let alone colour
television with stereo sound. Or video
recorders or DVD players. Virtually no
one had electricity in their homes, so there were no vacuum cleaners, no
washing machines, no electric lights even.
Only the very richest people had telephones. Hardly
anyone without a title had a motor car or even a motorbike. Mind you, they didn’t have a horse either,
unless they were a milkman, coal man or rag and bone man. The Wright brothers had managed to take off
in their little aeroplane, but the idea of jetting off for a foreign holiday
was unthinkable. Only
women from the lowest classes went out to work, and that was mainly as maids
and cooks for the gentry. Women
certainly couldn’t be trusted with the vote, and only a few got to go to
university and enter the professions. Most
people didn’t have an inside toilet in their homes, or central heating. Medicine was in its infancy. There were no antibiotics; modern surgery
under anaesthetic was only just being developed; and people still died from
measles and diphtheria and polio and scarlet fever and smallpox and
tuberculosis and many diseases that we hardly ever see today. |
|
PRESENTER |
So it’s all good news, then? |
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W.O.M. |
Well,
materially, we’re all vastly better off than a hundred years ago. We’re healthier and better nourished, and
we have much more choice over our lives than any previous generation. But... |
|
PRESENTER |
Ah. So there’s a “but”? |
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W.O.M. |
Yes. You used to be able to go out and leave
your door unlocked. If you fell on
hard times, your neighbours would rally round and share what little they had
with you. Rich people used their
wealth to set up hospitals and libraries and churches and housing
estates. There was much more a sense
of community than there is now. People
cared for their neighbours. |
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PRESENTER |
So, are there lessons for us in the 21st Century to
learn? |
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W.O.M. |
Oh
yes. 2000 years ago, Jesus told a
story[1]
about a man who was mugged and left badly hurt by the roadside. The person who stopped and helped him
wasn’t one of his own people, not even the local vicar. It was a total stranger who gave him first
aid, and paid for his medical treatment.
What Jesus was saying was that everyone is the neighbour we
should care for. |
|
PRESENTER |
Thanks for that. Ladies
and gentleman – the world’s oldest man! |
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SFX |
Mobile Phone rings |
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W.O.M. |
(Fading out) Yo, dude!
No, I’m in a radio studio. At
Radio Leicester. Safe! |