I am having a lazy day today. I woke up at 8:30 and took time to get going. After a shower I was ready to face the world. I received a very welcome phone call from my mom and it was nice to catch up about the family in SA.
Unlike the warm weather in SA, it's icy cold here and the frost doesn't look like shifting in a hurry.
It is rapidly approaching Christmas and tomorrow is the 1st December. I hope you are planning a good time. I expect many will be "cutting back" after the excess we have seen in previous years. This is not a bad thing. For too long we (the 1st world) have squandered our wealth. Investing in a "throw away" lifestyle. Never building a tomorrow but living to the "max". The carousel stopped turning but for some there are no other rides. Many are going to suffer this Christmas and I believe it will be worse in 2009. As I have budgeted and planned for the reminder of the year I have prepared my family for drastic reductions in all areas.
I support a group providing food parcels to pensioners in Zimbabwe and I am saddened and concerned about the plight of these poor people hanging on to life whilst the country leadership quarrel about who sits where at the banquet of political power. Read this November report.
You can support the work directly, if you prefer I am collecting money in the UK and will arrange payment.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
A life of Prime
We get on with our lives. We develop little fillers, supports or mechanisms to make it through the day. Some days are easier than others, some we barely have the strength for as we take to bed earlier than usual. This is the modern world. This is the way. To live our lives to the full.
Is life not meant to be a struggle? Do not the plants and animals fight daily for their survival? Where does it end? I know it well, this way is very familiar. It is well trodden and my footsteps are deep imprints on the earth.
What I have learned is not to be too serious about it and to enjoy the love of others when you can. Each day becomes a week, which becomes a month and then a year. Soon you notice your world has changed and you don't know where it went. This is the modern way. We live our lives at full speed in order that we can slow down one day and begin to enjoy it. So we give away our most vital years to have enjoyment when we are less able.
Is life not meant to be a struggle? Do not the plants and animals fight daily for their survival? Where does it end? I know it well, this way is very familiar. It is well trodden and my footsteps are deep imprints on the earth.
What I have learned is not to be too serious about it and to enjoy the love of others when you can. Each day becomes a week, which becomes a month and then a year. Soon you notice your world has changed and you don't know where it went. This is the modern way. We live our lives at full speed in order that we can slow down one day and begin to enjoy it. So we give away our most vital years to have enjoyment when we are less able.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Lest we forget
Remembrance Day
Why do we say, "Lest we forget"?
Before you read on think about that for second...
STOP and THINK, if you can ask others this question, I would be interested in the responses that you get.
OK.
So, Why do we say, "Lest we forget"?
To be nostalgic and remember the suffering of those men (on both sides) who fought and died in tragic, un-imaginable, torturous circumstances?
To remember their bravery and heroism is right and honorable but there is more to it than that.
We made a promise after the Great War. A promise we break and will continue to break.
Our promise was to learn from that experience and not to repeat it.
We have not only broken this promise as world governments, we break it ourselves, every year. You break it, I break it and so does the rest of the world. But how do we break it?
We look at the past, we muse and sigh at the hopeless suffering and death, at the depravity of needless suffering for the things that the men in the Great War, were fighting over. Our nostalgia is matched by the appreciation for and the bewilderment, at their sacrifice.
Were you against the war in Iraq? Yes of course you were, until it started. Once it started the excitement and fascination with military took over and objections faded. You were caught up, like everyone else, watching TV for every update.
Now, we are angered at the atrocities, the beheadings, suicide bombers, the children dying in Fallujah while Coalition "Smart Bombs" and insurgent mortars obliterate the buildings and infrastructure that sustains them.
So what's different to 1914?
Why do we need the past? The past is history and for your life, you might say, "I don't do post mortems". Think, before you move forward.
Soldiers and sufferers say they would love to forget the war, but can't. But we can, we were never there. We do forget, even with our posters, movies, ceremonies and tattoos. We forget, we forget the promise we made. To forget is to avoid or ignore. A missed chance to learn and grow.
We need the past. We need to remember the past and to do what makes us uniquely human, to learn from our failure.
You cannot change the way Governments and leaders react, never mind be responsible for it. But, you are responsible for yourself. You can change yourself and your behaviour during the events and conflict in your own life and teach your children to do the same. For this you are uniquely responsible.
So remember the war, but don't honour their memory by only being hushed and nostalgic, be constructive with your past and change your future and your children's future, this is the true honour they deserve. For when you see those men and others again, you can stand proud and say, "Thank you I never forgot, I changed my life."
In this way we honour the dead.
In this way, we make our lives the offering to their memory. Not some plastic wreath, or cardboard poppy. A living example of what they taught us.
Let us honour the fallen and "Learn from our past".
Why do we say, "Lest we forget"?
Before you read on think about that for second...
STOP and THINK, if you can ask others this question, I would be interested in the responses that you get.
OK.
So, Why do we say, "Lest we forget"?
To be nostalgic and remember the suffering of those men (on both sides) who fought and died in tragic, un-imaginable, torturous circumstances?
To remember their bravery and heroism is right and honorable but there is more to it than that.
We made a promise after the Great War. A promise we break and will continue to break.
Our promise was to learn from that experience and not to repeat it.
We have not only broken this promise as world governments, we break it ourselves, every year. You break it, I break it and so does the rest of the world. But how do we break it?
We look at the past, we muse and sigh at the hopeless suffering and death, at the depravity of needless suffering for the things that the men in the Great War, were fighting over. Our nostalgia is matched by the appreciation for and the bewilderment, at their sacrifice.
Were you against the war in Iraq? Yes of course you were, until it started. Once it started the excitement and fascination with military took over and objections faded. You were caught up, like everyone else, watching TV for every update.
Now, we are angered at the atrocities, the beheadings, suicide bombers, the children dying in Fallujah while Coalition "Smart Bombs" and insurgent mortars obliterate the buildings and infrastructure that sustains them.
So what's different to 1914?
Why do we need the past? The past is history and for your life, you might say, "I don't do post mortems". Think, before you move forward.
Soldiers and sufferers say they would love to forget the war, but can't. But we can, we were never there. We do forget, even with our posters, movies, ceremonies and tattoos. We forget, we forget the promise we made. To forget is to avoid or ignore. A missed chance to learn and grow.
We need the past. We need to remember the past and to do what makes us uniquely human, to learn from our failure.
You cannot change the way Governments and leaders react, never mind be responsible for it. But, you are responsible for yourself. You can change yourself and your behaviour during the events and conflict in your own life and teach your children to do the same. For this you are uniquely responsible.
So remember the war, but don't honour their memory by only being hushed and nostalgic, be constructive with your past and change your future and your children's future, this is the true honour they deserve. For when you see those men and others again, you can stand proud and say, "Thank you I never forgot, I changed my life."
In this way we honour the dead.
In this way, we make our lives the offering to their memory. Not some plastic wreath, or cardboard poppy. A living example of what they taught us.
Let us honour the fallen and "Learn from our past".
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