My third can of worms is having been a paid up and hyper-active Christian I now look back in dismay at how slow I was to wake up to the tyranny of it all.

I've written that Christians are spoiled but it's the connection of protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism that has cost me dear. My mother knowing that 'Satan finds works for idle hands to do' laid the foundations for my sickness. Most of my life I lived to work rather than work to live which is a sensible thing to do, and the memory of it haunts me.

Acknowledging BIFF at www.peoplemanagement.co.uk

Madeleine Bunting, Guardian 30 th May 2001 suggests that the current work ethic is turning us into emotional pygmies. She reminds us that Peter Mandleson, that high priest of new labour, wrote that work is a moral duty; by the same token we're told that work is more fun and more exciting that anything else in our lives.

Becoming Human is a carer's resource; with new friends and new ideas we cope well enough with crisis and whatever comes; we are master craftsmen and artists and find our work has its own potential for satisfaction, dignity and understanding.

In a massive re education programme called the Reformation theologians who knew how to make a name for themselves had their way. Max Weber (1943) tells how Martin Luther (1483-1546) gave us the concept of the call. This is still heard in evangelical Christian circles and gives those involved a magical sense of their authority to what is, in effect, nothing more than a contract of employment between a minister of religion and a local church.

In the months and years that lie ahead both the minister and those who 'are the local church will play the games the situation invites and will refer back to what they call 'the holy spirit'. With that magical element in place neither can ever speak straight of their fears feelings or doubts and their emotional labour will unwittingly consume their entire commitment to the situation.

So it is with all contracts or callings that invoke a magical element. These are made worse by the promises that are made or implied. Any arrangement loaded with what we find irrational is in any case be one of emotional labour where those involved do what they ought to or what they're told to without reference to how they feel.

But with new friends we can learn to speak straight. video

When Dot realises that Jim does love her she asks him plaintively 'how did it happen?' As Ransackers our small group realised that something amazing had happened to us. Such happenings are not magic but come when we realise the potential of our fundamental human needs.