Sometimes what you can afford is the total sum of the price for your life.
One school of thought suggests that on Monday, 27 July,
some government teachers who have been fighting for schools to be closed,
will be at home, preparing their children to go to school - private school.
This could happen, my reasoning tells me.
But this reasoning can only judge what I know.
And what I know is that I do not know everything.
Like how a parent can cry foul about being in danger in their work space?
Then turn around and put their young in a similar place.
Perhaps I just do not know how anyone would let their descendants pass through the fire to Molech.
In this case, pass through Covid-19 to their demise.
An abominable practice which we sought to appease the angel of death.
And seek his benefit by sacrificing their own children by a virus.
Perhaps this is how it must be for man to survive.
If you have read this column before, you would remember the lessons my late father left for me in his copy of Louis L’amour’s The Lonesome Gods.
On page 145 of the same book, L’amour said man is only a casual whim in a mindless universe.
That he too will pass. Like seasons. Like circumstances. Like pain.
Our flames are destined to dance in the air.
Fist as a raging flame. Or a inferno blazing. Then calm. No flames. Just heat.
Lungs concave in. No breath. Blood dries. The body turns cold. The body shrivels. Then rigor mortis.
If you haven't noticed, there are only two things in this realm - and possibly every other - that are inevitable. These are death and time.
So, a government school employed parent, who’s child attends a private school; on Monday, 27 July, how close to the inevitable are you comfortable with pushing your child to?
Yes, you will pass. We all will. Inevitably your child too.
But perhaps only in this instant you have a hand in the angel of death’s meeting with your offspring.
Minors can not sign contracts.
Another school of thought would suggest that neither can they a compact. Nor make a pact with the devil, or a lesser demon. Or a virus.
What diabolical favours would you desire, dear government school teacher whose child attends a private school?
Maybe the typical youth?
How about knowledge? Perhaps wealth, fame or power.
Whatever your desire, your child's soul is yours to sell.
Keep a pen, with blood instead of ink in it, ready for Monday.
Remember your bargain. Remember that the price of a fiend’s service is the wagerer’s soul.
Remember that too few if any, have outwitted the devil.
Sometimes what you can afford, be it fees at a private school, is the total sum of the price for your life. Or that of your child. I doubt Covid-19 cares about the privacy of a learning institution.
Let us not normalise marching our kids to 1.5million graves.