“Time is a great teacher but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.”

Over the last few days we got a relatively minor glimpse of how, despite our vanities, nature can change our lives, of how storm conditions can deny us the essentials we rely on to make our world comfortable.

There is a powerful whiff of hypocrisy behind today’s shocking report showing the Government is shamelessly ignoring its own rules on appointments to state boards.

When former US diplomat Richard Haass urged Northern politicians to “fish or cut bait” at today’s negotiations between the main parties on contentious issues in the peace process, he was no doubt tempted to use a more direct, albeit a more crude analogy.

Just as we seem less engaged than we were some years ago with changes an evolving climate will force on our world we seem to have taken our eye off the ball on how we will manage the growing quantities of waste our consumer society produces.

Though the forced emigration of a person, a son or a daughter, is often distressing for a family the impact of one person’s leave taking may not always have a huge impact on their community.

It is unfortunate that some parents who gave children smart phones for Christmas will come to regret the gift. Especially as many parents gave phones to try and keep in contact with youngsters and ensure their safety.

It is natural that as we shape the future we try to make it better than the past. Equally, it is wise that we learn the lessons of the past so we do not repeat its mistakes.

The only way you can assess the value, integrity, or quality of a society is to compare it to another.

It may be a tad too bah humbug to react cautiously to Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s promise of 2014 tax cuts for middle-income families but our history of Santa Claus electioneering and its consequences are so chastening, so deeply carved into the national psych, that a degree of scepticism is appropriate.