Few would argue when I say we’re living in dangerous times thus it’s hard to imagine any news-item which would truly shock us, so I put the thinking cap on to think one up. Try this.
Imagine if Cameron Slater of Whale-Oil fame, made a submission to a Parliamentary committee which included Chloe Swarbrick. Cameron and Chloe take one look at one another and are both instantly smitten.
Two months later, Chloe, having renounced left-wingism and lesbianism, clad in a full virginal white wedding dress, with Ricardo Menendez March prancing prettily in a pink velvet outfit as a page boy, and Grant Robertson, also virginally clad in a billowing white bridesmaid’s gown, go through a traditional wedding ceremony with Cameron, he suitably clad in a military uniform, conducted by His Grace, Bishop Brian Tamaki.
I include Grant as a bridesmaid for he refers to his partner Alf, who’s a little bloke half his size and was half-back in the nation’s first homosexual rugby team years ago, as his, Grant’s husband.
That presumably makes Grant his wife and the mind certainly boggles at the thought of these two disparate figures’ difficulties in engaging in what have you. Probably best not to go there.
The question is, would we be shocked in this age of continuing daily crazy and frightening news items?
Conditioned as we are, probably within hours we’d accept it and instead see it as an uplifting cause for hope that good things can still happen.