I'm tired

A crazy week with the end of the conference, then into the craziness which is student orientation and trying to sort out my own life and having my goddaughter and family spin through in the middle of it all. I have just chilled ready to be frozen, 8 litres of chili half meat and half vegetarian as the turnout to our little puzzle trail was lower than expected.

The BBC report that French researchers claim that peoples who were part of the Roman Empire are less likely to have the CCR5-delta32 gene variant, which offers some protection against HIV. But this is not necessarily intrinsic to interbreeding rather the Romans could have introduced an unknown disease which people with the CCR5-Delta32 variant were susceptible. Here I'm reminded of something I read that survivors of the global epidemic of the Spanish Flu which decimated populations after World War One still carry dramatic levels of antibodies. Perhaps an earlier version of Spanish Flu struck down those carrying the critic gene removing an important part of the population.

Meeting and talking this week I have been exploring deep human inclinations such as to choose the bad even when we know the good and how the human psyche needs hope and how grace can upset us because it is undeserved. As I think how we dealt with stress in the past reflects how we continue to see stress now, so now many conversations this week still bring me back to basics, I teach what I most need to learn. Stress may empower and give life if I face my God, and stress may drain me where I try and find resources in myself. I need hope and understanding and so I try to give that to the many around me and those I meet. Where do you turn in stress?