Mary Kenny
You will be aware of the phrase “First World Problem”, usually employed sarcastically. It’s an apt description of those spoilt folk in the rich world whinging about trivialities while so much of the globe experiences real suffering.
So, this may seem something of a “First World Problem”, but I’ll mention it just the same as it does have a meaningful dimension. My big whinge at this time of the year is that when I get invited to Advent or Christmas parties, there’s often nothing decent to drink – for those of us who don’t partake of alcohol.
I find it puzzlingly selfish, to be honest, that hosts who swish down wine and even cocktails by the bucketful seldom give any real thought to providing a pleasant drink for non-topers.
Water or orange juice are usually the only alternatives, and they are frankly inadequate on these occasions. Water is boring in a party setting, and orange juice is a breakfast drink, totally lacking fizz. You want something with a bit of sparkle – ginger ale, elderflower spritzer, even a serving of Seven-Up would be welcome. Indeed, Seven-Up was invented to provide an interesting drink for American teetotallers. Honestly, next seasonal party I’m invited to, I’ll bring my own bottle!
And here’s the more serious side of this “first world problem”: the organisation Alcohol Action Ireland constants pleads for more measures against alcohol abuse. Alcohol accounts for 11 per cent of Irish health care, and five per cent of Irish deaths. Alcoholism, they claim, costs Ireland €12 billion annually.
One part of the personal battle against booze is finding an alternative libation. That is the more serious reason to providing interesting, flavoursome non-intoxicating party drinks. You are not only pleasing your guest, you are also supporting temperance.
The humble cocktail
On a related topic, I am told that young people these days have rediscovered the delight of the cocktail. This was associated with the 1920s, rather than the 2020s, but everything gets reinvented in time.
And there are the non-alcoholic version called a “mocktail”. The most popular are the “Negroni mocktail”, which is composed of grape juice, coriander and cardamon pods; the “non-alcoholic G & T”, being camomile, cardamon, mint, cloves and rosemary – plus the tonic, evidently. There is also the “Sidecar mocktail”, which is made of cold lapsang souchong tea, lemon juice and honey. To any “mocktail” I would add a spritz of something fizzy, either tonic, soda, sparkling water, even lemonade.
I savoured a real “Sidecar” or two back in a misspent youth. I recall this drink as sinfully delicious, and you don’t realise how intoxicating it is until the room spins as you try to stand up. It consisted of a generous helping of Cointreau, a dash of vodka, a drop of angostura bitters, some lemon juice, and a glaze of sugar around the glass. If trying it, stop at one! There’s always the “mocktail” as a clear-headed alternative.
Nun raves about “Conclave”
I met a nun last week who had worked at the Vatican for over a decade, and she declared the movie “Conclave” to be “very accurate”. She also approved of the performance of Isabella Rossellini as the only prominent nun in the movie. (Although, for movie pedants, be it noted that the conclave scenes were not filmed in the Vatican itself, but at a well-known church, Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, in Rome’s Corso del Rinascimento.)
She also noted – which I hadn’t picked up – that the “reactionary” cardinal was called “Tedesco” – meaning German. This is taken to be a nudge against Pope Benedict.
The movie has been widely acclaimed as one of the films of 2024, but perhaps it takes a Protestant to dissent. The journalist Peter Hitchens, who identifies himself as “one of the last English Protestants”, waxed critical. “The main conservative character is, of course, stupid and crude. And we are invited to think that traditional prayers and big families are bad things…my sword leaps from its scabbard to defend [the Catholic church] against this liberal bilge.”
The unknown unknowns in Syria
It’s evident that commentators don’t quite know how to analyse the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and its replacement by a rebel group led by a former jihadist, 42-year-old Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Will Christians be respected, or even tolerated? The small Christian community is in such a vulnerable position.
Yet Syria has definite links with Christian history. In Matthew’s gospel (4: 24) it is related that the fame of Jesus “went throughout Syria” as he taught and healed. Even though modern Syria is not exactly the same geographical shape, the allusion is meaningful.
The most renowned of all Christian conversions, that of St Paul, occurred on the road to Damascus (Acts, 9:3-10). When Paul reached Damascus, there was a disciple, Ananias, there to greet him. Yes, Christianity’s roots are surely in this troubled land.