I CAN SEE! Last week I said it may happen, and now it has. Thermobaric oxygen bombs have been dropped; although not fully confirmed, plus cluster bombs and alike.

And now a nuclear power station has been hit. My daughter, who has been in this paper and on TV as an author with her children’s book, ‘The Land of Magical Surprises,’ said to me as I was about to write this column, ‘don’t write about the war, but something cheerful.’

A Russian priest said on Sunday, ‘the truth must be told.’ All writers at this sort of time have dilemmas on just what and how to write, but as the Roman soldier said at the side of Jesus on the cross, ‘what I have written, I have written.’

So when words are difficult, lots of writer and artists utilise pictures and parables. The famous words ‘I can see,’ is when a blind man was purported to be able to see after Jesus prayed for him.

Picture with me if you can – you have just got into bed, you laydown and turn the light off, the room appear to be in complete darkness. But after a relatively short time as you look around, you can start to see a little.

Your eyes have adjusted to the darkness and the little light left is enough to see some outlines. There are two ways of understanding this and both are right.

Firstly, the deception of thinking that the light you now have is sufficient to do the right thing and to see clearly enough to carry on your normal life as if you are in the light of mid-day.

When a person’s mind dwells on dark deeds and plots to massacre millions of people and animals, and then carries it out, you know that person is really in a very dark place, but worryingly thinks they can see in the dim light of the bedroom. The dim light has become normal to them!

That’s what psychiatrist call delusional.

The other way of looking at this is – even when there seems to be complete darkness and no hope, there normally is some light for anyone looking for the light.

For the deluded person in the dark, it is only a matter of time before they fall over and are gone. For those seeking the light, it says, ‘they will find it.’

This is when those famous words can be said again, ‘I can see!’ And see clearly.

When we all wake up from this darkness, it will be a different day and the scenery will have changed, but it will be a new day to choose light and not darkness!

This is when the work begins to rebuild and to think about what really matters. Our families, the wildlife and our precious planet.

Not yachts, money, power and privilege. You can’t make the world better by hate; that’s the darkness. You can only change the world by love and truth, hate never improves anything, as we can all clearly see!