Modern student life. And things people believe, even in the age of social media.

My daughter’s big 7-seater vehicle, the one I absolutely refuse to even consider driving because it’s almost as big as a minibus, has broken down. Unless the warranty people agree to cough up some money it’s going to be expensive to repair. No doubt the warranty people will find some way to wriggle out of accepting responsibility for the repair. That’s the way of the world. 

The timing is spectacularly inconvenient as today Granddaughter Number Two wants to come home from university in York, bringing a ridiculously large amount of stuff with her, far more, I’m sure, than I accumulated when ai was a student. Okay, today’s students all have computers but in fact hers is a laptop, so it’s not what’s taking up so much space. There’s stuff like her pillows, her duvet and goodness knows what other bulky items, the kind of stuff you can’t put in a backpack!

So my daughter has driven up to York in her partner’s smaller car. Messages are pinging back and forth about how all the stuff won’t fit in the car and they’ll have to make two journeys. Modern student life is complicated! But at least Granddaughter Number Two has a job lined up for the summer so that she can save some money towards next year’s studying. 

Here’s some stuff about believing in things. I read this morning about David Cameron being tricked into a video phone call with someone claiming to be Petro Poroshenko, the former president of Ukraine. Apparently he grew suspicious after the conversation, when contact details for other people were requested and he stopped responding to emails. Oops! The fear is that the video may be manipulated and made use of. There are some clever people out there, stealing money from gullible folk and trying to steal secrets from government folk. 

In Civitavecchia, near Rome, people are falling for another kind of story, hoax or hysteria or miracle depending on your point of view. In the front garden of the Gregori family home there is a well-curated grotto containing a tiny, rusting statue of the Virgin Mary surrounded by plants and flowers. The figurine was bought from a souvenir shop at the Catholic pilgrimage site in Medjugorje, Bosnia. People (pilgrims) turn up to pray because the statue has exuded scented oil! Of course, someone filmed it, published it on social media and another pilgrimage site was created. 

This is not the first time that family has had a miracle. In February 1995 little Jessica Gregori, then aged five, said she saw tears of blood streaming down the face of another statue of the Virgin, also from a Medjugorje souvenir shop (there’s a coincidence) and given to the family by a priest who believed it had special powers. Known locally as La Madonnina, the statue allegedly wept blood on 13 more occasions. Oh, boy! Even a bishop took a look and said the experience overcame his original scepticism. There was even a police investigation and the statue was given a Cat scan to see if there was any mechanism inside it - there wasn’t! 

But a bishop’s word may not be enough as in May the Vatican announced it had tightened rules surrounding such phenomena in an attempt to crack down on potential scams and hoaxes, which are said to have proliferated in the age of social media. Only the pope has the final word on what is a supernatural event, not self-styled prophets or even local bishops, who until now had the power to endorse such occurrences.

Here we are in the 21st century and IT and social media create weird and strange stories for us. 

Onto other matters. I spotted a headline this morning: “Israeli peaceniks in the US are shunned by both sides in their call for Gaza ceasefire and hostage release”. Neither the pro-Zionists, nor the pro-Palestinians, they say, accept them. They were booed by people taking part in New Yorks annual  Israel Day Parade on Sunday. I never knew there was such a parade. Well, of course not. I don’t live in New York and the parade hasn’t usually had a lot of publicity. I have since found out that it has been taking place in New York City since 1964, when a group of people worked together in order to plan a demonstration of American Jewish solidarity with Israel. They coordinated with the Manhattan Day School to march from their school to a theater on Broadway. This March was known as the Youth Salute to Israel Parade. 

But it seems the people who come to walk in the parade don’t like criticism of Israel’s actions at the moment. So it goes. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!