With the Bondi Junction and Wakeley Church stabbings, these few days have been tragic, tense and rough, even for people far from Sydney.

How do you feel?

Hi Mavs,

How do I feel?

Like the world's gone crazy.

Watching the news these days is distressing.

The fatalities of the Middle-East conflict tear at your
heart-strings. The situation in Ukraine continues. American
politics looks grim. And now things have hit home with the
stabbings. Makes you wonder - what's next?

Trying to stay calm is difficult. Yet we need to do just
that. We need to find what unites us, not divides us.
We need to show respect for each other and try to come
together to save our communities. Australians have always
shown each other assistance in times of strife. If this is
not a time of strife, I don't know what is. Be kind to
each other.

It's not a big ask. But it will have a big impact.

These last 5-6 days of stabbing outrages have been a very bad time. Bad news syndrome kicks in. I've been losing sleep. And need to get away from the keyboard (stop writing about bad news) and exercise more.

A broader reality (with the end of Daylight Saving, with longer, colder nights) is Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) kicks in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder

SAD varies is severity for me year by year. Yet writers often benefit from mood swings - within boundaries.

But I realise those stabbed and those in Gaza and Ukraine have life far worse.

How about you?

Hi Mavs,

I've got enough on my plate at the moment with other
health issues. So yes, what's happening on the news
does affect me deeply. However, I have family support
which helps. As do friends. I find myself watching
entertainment programs on TV. especially quiz shows -
like "Tipping Point," and "Deal or No Deal," and
just lately I've started to watch, "The Farmer wants
a wife."

Oh, and I'll be watching "Judge John Deed," tonight.
Love that show. Martin Shaw is delicious.

Now back to the stabbing in Wakeley.

The bishop who was stabbed is well known for his
outspoken views. From Covid-19 lockdowns, anti
injections, to homosexuality, and non-Christian
religions including Judaism, and Islam.

It should be concerning to us all that a 16 year old
boy was responsible for the stabbing of the Bishop.

There's something wrong when that happens.

Also, we now have to look out for retaliatory attacks
and possibly even more tragic events.

Perhaps communities, especially religious communities,
need to be more selective in who they choose to speak
from their pulpits. Especially when the speeches can
incur such disastrous results. Words do matter. And their
effects can be very bad.

With reference to the Muslim stabbing the Assyrian Orthodox Bishop, I feel that this is just another example of the stupidity of multiculturalism and the introduction into Australia of non-British/European Arabs and the like with built-in volatility that is just not the way of British/European Australians.

Muslim stabs Christian. Arab Christians riot and attack police officers. A bloody disgrace that is entirely the fault of our idiot politicians, who were, and still are, too stupid to know there is no such thing as cultural relativism, and Australia is rapidly fracturing because of their idiocy.