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Good morning.

Over the weekend our family bought a new television. The truth is, our old TV set had been playing up for years, and was becoming so obsolete that we were unable to access certain digital channels and use streaming services. But here’s the thing, I'd become so attached to that TV, which when we bought it, it was state of the art technology, in fact, I wanted to hold on to it and get it repaired.

The thing is, back in the day when you had a television problem, there was always a local repairman who could carry out the requisite maintenance to get the thing working again. Sadly for me, those days are gone. I can’t tell you the last time I saw a shop or retail outlet carrying out this work. And when I contacted the electrical department from which I bought the television many moons ago, hoping that they could do something, the salesperson burst out laughing and told me that that particular model had gone the way of a Dodo. His only advice was to buy another.

So now we have a new television, which makes everything look sharper or ‘crisper’ according to the manual, and the sound is so enveloping that it feels as if you’re surrounded. But at the same time, I still miss the old TV and I couldn’t even get myself to dispose of it, but I placed it in the garden shed just in case I come across someone who can repair it.

In our increasingly disposable world, which is characterised by fast fashion and consumer items with a limited shelf life, it would be nice to think that some things do not outlive their usefulness.

So I pray that we may be people who do not treat others in the same way that we often value consumer goods.

Amen.