Page 39 - index

TOP COVER 524+0)

T e Police Service of Northern Ireland will be regarded as a T is system of management recognises that the Association relies
single force and will fall under the regional responsibility of North on the voluntary commitment of its coordinators. It is designed to
West Region. T is will be reviewed in due course to ascertain if it cause as little inconvenience to them as is possible and the overall
should be a region in its own right. concept is to work smart as opposed to working hard. T ere will
be a great sense of satisfaction felt by all concerned as they will be
/CPCIGOGPV QH VJG %QQTFKPCVQTU ensuring that the good work of the PFOA can be undertaken and is
Paul Leggett, one of the PFOA trustees, will be the Coordinator accessible to all members in all parts of the country.
Manager for the Association and will have core responsibility for If you would like to know more about the roles and responsibilities
the management and administration of all the coordinators. He of the various roles please contact the PFOA office ■
will ensure that the system works well and those forming part of it
are aware of their roles and responsibilities.

B!WJFX!GSPN!BCPWF"!

94+66'0 $; %#010 +& 9+.$4#*#/
(14%' %*#2.#+0 ­6*#/'5 8#..'; 21.+%' 0#6+10#. 21.+%' %*#2.#+0

±%#42' &+'/² It is the sentiment of making the most
T e one thing, well probably the only thing, I have in common of each and every day that appeals to me,
with William Shakespeare is that we share the same birthday – of living and enjoying each moment and
23rd April (interestingly, he also managed some 53 years later to trying somehow, in however a small way, to
die on the same date!). make a difference. To notice the things that
It was celebrated in the office with obligatory cream cakes and I are important in the world and in people.
did tell everyone I was 50 – a point which is factually correct – as it T ere is a trap that is easy to fall into
has also been for the past four years! I am now, subject to any other that spends the time making plans for the
government changes yet to be, probably halfway towards getting future, of looking ahead to the time when we will have ‘blue sky in
my pension and having the time to do all the things I would like the diary’, when work will not be so busy, when we will not have to
to do. It was also a bit of a salutary week as, with all the media be working to earn money, for a future holiday, retirement, when
attention surrounding the death of Lady T atcher, I was reminded the kids have left home or whatever our plans are. I am not saying
of the turbulent years for our country during the 70s and 80s that we should not have good ideas and aspirations of adventure but
during my days in the Police. It made me feel a bit older and more rather that we must not let them take away from the value of today.
conscious of anno domini to realise that I was part of history! So often in my ministry I come across people whose lives are
It is always interesting to ask people “how old do you feel?” and unexpectedly and suddenly devastated by critical illness, tragic
I guess my answer is 29/30-ish and certainly not what is probably circumstances, unexpected and untimely death and so often it
described as ‘middle age’ and a qualified ‘saga lout’. However that causes life to be re-evaluated.
is the reality and with it the realisation and appreciation of many What is really important? What are the things that really matter to
things in life that I am grateful for and, for the most part, life is me? Rarely is that work, the Police, a career, finances, however good
good. T e other side of the coin is that I am conscious of change, they each might be. Time and time again it is the strength and value
especially in discovering the world of apps and clever IT gadgets of close relationships with a partner, with family, and with friends. It
etc, aware of some limitations – for example working on projects is the preciousness of who people are rather than what they do. It is
and when it comes to using some brute force or strength suggesting the glorious simplicity and wonder of the most ordinary ‘stuff of life’
to one of my sons that they might like to help! And sadly illness, in that is the true gold rather than all else that glistens.
a few cases the death of contemporaries. We deal with such tragedy in our professional lives so often that
It is also probably a mark of age that one of my favourite film we can become a little too tough at times. However when such
clips is the scene in ‘T e Dead Poet’s Society’, where the new things happen within our own families or within the wider ‘Police
and unorthodox English teacher John Keating, played by Robin family’, such as the sad and untimely death of Federation Chair
Williams, gathers the class round the school trophy cabinet and in Paul McKeever in January, we are reminded of the true value of life
a unique way teaches the boys the meaning of some poetry: and of what we have and hold.
GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may, ‘Carpe Diem’ – Seize the day!
Old time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
Lines which the embarrassed and chuckling schoolboys are told David
are from the poem by Robert Herrick, ‘To the virgins, to make
much of time’. Williams then has them look at the sepia pictures Canon David Wilbraham
and trophies of former generations in the cabinet and from behind T 01865 846916/2 M 07973 367786
the huddled crowd whispers repeatedly the phrase “Carpe diem. Eden House, 16 Lyne Road, Kidlington, Oxon, OX5 1AD
Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” E david.wilbraham@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk