Saturdays
There's always too much to do, and it gets worse. Life must be made to slow down. Tomorrow is my birthday, another step along the road towards the end of this journey. It's not too long since my last birthday, certainly it came around far quicker than when I was young.
This week two young teenage girls came to stay. Such joy, their bubbling laughter rippling through the house. A real breath of Spring. It was an extremely enjoyable experience, one that gives courage and expectation for the future. Their enthusiasm for life has not been tainted, they even seem to have survived our education system without too many deleterious effects.
At one point I switched on a television, only to be told that it was 'boring' (and what would many teenagers do without that word?). Running through the TV schedules for that day it was clear why she should say it was boring, for there was nothing that would entertain a teenager. Hopefully that's a good sign for the future, for these youngsters may not become couch potatoes, slouched in front of a flickering screen.
Looking forward to tomorrow, when a small party of my friends are joining me for lunch. If you count me as your friend, and are in Felixstowe, pop round tomorrow.
Radio Suffolk
Did you hear me on Radio Suffolk today?
Probably not
Fifteen minutes of fame that fell on deaf ears!
Democracy
I'm having great trouble coming to terms with the idea of democracy. I blame this Internet, as it has increased my expectations beyond those of my great-grandparents, who were no doubt delighted when they were given the vote (men in 1890ish, women in 1921).
Today I want more than the chance to vote for a member of Parliament once every five years, especially when the MP for my area holds opposing views to my own. That's not democracy, that autocracy by another name.
Our Prime Minister took us to Iraq, where we needlessly killed people, and destroyed their infrastructure. The majority of folk in England would not, would NOT have voted for that invasion. It wasn't a war, there was nobody willing to fight. There were other ways to remove a despot.
Now English ratepayers will pay for those misjudgements, for years to come. At the same time we have charities that support hospices, air ambulances and any number of supportive charities doing jobs that (perhaps) we as a people would rather were financed by, or from, government.
On the other hand perhaps we should all be left to get on with it on our own. Over half of our earnt incomes are now spent by our governments. By people over who I have no effective control.
Relative Reality
To those of you with a scientific mind; here's a question. Is reality, like time, relative?
Your view of the world is different from mine. Today I am sad, circumstances overwhelm me. You may feel happy, angry, afraid.
The image we have of the world is internal, perceived from within from a myriad set of inputs, most based upon past perceptions of how the world goes round - in our mind.
There is no frame of reference to which we can all agree. So time and space may be no more than an analogue way of showing us a range of possibilities, making us consider the manipulations required and the effort required.
So does conscious space expand with time?
If so, does energy relate to space, and the rate of energy production be in proprortion to the rate of space creation?
Are we growing apart?
A significant date. My mother's birthday.
Also Lupercalia: the day when Romulus, founder of the city of Rome, celebrated the life of the she-wolf that reared him and his brother, Remus.
Normally celebrated by slaughtering a goat and a dog: not sure how that helped in the fun, but a refined version of that ceremony will be enacted in many paces today.
I completed the first draft of the layout of a new book by Nancille Peacocke, sent it to her for approval and editing. This is the second book in her planned trilogy, see www.author.co.uk/wymondly for details of the first book, Savannah Spell. Based in Georgia when the English were trying to be dominating, it is an enthralling story, very well told. The second book will be a fine follow-on, so start reading the first now!
Valentine
It's Valentine's Day, so I'm clutching a piece of rose quartz hoping the world is looking for love. History is not giving much cause for optimism. Yet Iraqis seem happier now they have an elected set of rulers, and Israel and the Palestinians are talking to each other. Let's hope it lasts.
It's been a time for remembering some of the atrocities of the last war. Last month Auschwitz raised its ugly head, with memories of man's inhumanity. This week the bombing of Dresden, and no doubt the bombing of Horoshima and Nagasaki will also soon be recalled.
The carpet bombing of Dresden was an abomination. It should never have happened, and the use of nuclear bombs on Japanese cities was equally obscene. I'm left wondering whether these events were not deliberate acts, designed to see the effects of carpet bombing upon a city and of the use of nuclear weapons upon a population. These atrocities did nothing to slow down the inevitable conclusions of the wars. Germany was close to capitulation at the time, and the Japanese would have been as aware of the power of the forces against them if the bombs had been dropped on a nearby mountain, rather than upon cities teeming with innocent people.
Someone was to blame. They made the decisions, knowing the likely outcomes. That depth of depravity goes beyond national pride, beyond the desire to win. That was barbaric.
Democracy is a ludicrous concept in such events. How many of us would have opted to bomb Dresden, knowing that tens of thousands would be killed, or to bomb Nagasaki and Hiroshima knowing that hundreds of thiousands would either perish or have their whole lives blighted?
We should be capable of removing the power to take such decisions away from a few power-crazed individuals and leave the mass of the people to decide. At the very least the decision to go to war should be put to the people, to vote for or against.
Only then can we begin to have a democratic process that is representative.
