As they say ‘the day started like any other’. Françoise has gone off to see a friend in Bath so here am I looking at a rather indifferent sky. There is rain in the air. Off to the town to do various tasks. On the way I pop into Sainsbury’s to look at the headlines of the newspapers. They seem irrelevant and alarmist so why bothered to buy a newspaper. I don’t think I bought one for, let me think now, since the covid nonsense started. They are also expensive anyway.
To the post office to pay in some money from gardening. I always laugh and joke with the tellers combat teasing them whenever possible.
Price Rises
To Wetherspoons thinking that I might have breakfast but what do I see. I remember that during the covid era meals were available for less than three pounds. The price of coffee used to be 99p now it is £1.50. I now see the announcement that you can see on the left so this means that a traditional breakfast with coffee will now cost £7.25. If there’s one thing I dislike and that is creeping price increases. Maybe I should not complain about Wetherspoons because they always try to give good value, The rise is probably due partly to the enormous tax burden they have to find to pay the government.
I dislike even more intensely creeping petrol prices. If they bore some resemblance to the price of crude oil I would be more impressed. I know that in any event we pay 75p duty to the government for the privilege of driving around and the now upon us ULEZ with their 15 minute cities background is a harbinger of doom.
I had a telephone conversation out of the blue today with a lady from Trinidad and Tobago and it made me realize how poor we are in spirit. Here was a person bursting with love and with a complete absence of fear and I realize why I am sometimes bored with the versions of homo sapiens that we have round here. Where is the spark? Where is the spirit? Where is the courage?
I was motivated to bring up my friend Steve who has worked in Africa to share my delight in meeting this person. I wonder if I shouldn’t end my days in a place that is more conducive to community and love. Having said that though, we are where we need to be to fulfill our karma so maybe I should just get on with it.
What do do this weekend?
Saturday. My goodness, how much is there to see and do. The Mendip Times is one of the most reliable places to see what is going on.
What criteria should I use to decide which event to go to? I can only go to one or two. If I went to the same thing last year I would be less inclined to go this year not more inclined. The formula does not normally change. Some people take this to an extreme, I ask if people they have been to the Bath and West annual show in Shepton Mallet which is a vast event (some would say too vast) and they reply ‘I went 20 years ago but have not been since’. I would have thought that was due for a revisit more frequently than once every 20 years.
I won’t go to a show where knitted objects of whatever type are on sale, so-called craft shows, perhaps in readiness for Christmas. I’m in and out of there in five minutes possibly pausing for a coffee. I don’t need to see any more things. I do need to have new experiences. People selling stuff does not do it for me.
Having decided on the periodicity and the theme, I then look at the distance. Somerset is a big county and it can take a couple of hours to go from one corner to the other so the prize would be for those less than 30 minutes away.
I also look for something original for example with Oak Hill we have the Back Room Boogie Band. These have to be a group of enthusiastic amateurs making a joyous noise but the very rough and ready uncommercial sound appeals to me before IV even heard a note of their music.
Flower shows I don’t mind. Flower shows with something else added is more appealing. I see on Sunday we have the North Somerset agricultural society including a plowing match. Now, you’ve got me there, because I love agricultural machines of all types is specially old machines and that includes petrol driven pump engines with their unique chuff chuff sound.
So we haven’t immediately made up our mind but my guess is that we will be going to Oak Hill, and at least one flower show.
What criteria should I use to decide which event to go to. I can only go to one or two. If I went to the same thing last year I would be less inclined to go this year not to more inclined. Some people take this to an extreme, I ask if people they have been to the Bath and West annual show in Shepton Mallet which is a vast event (some would say too vast) and they reply ‘I went 20 years ago but have not been since’. I would have thought that was due for a revisit more frequently than once every 20 years.
I won’t go to a show where knitted objects of whatever type are on sale, so-called craft shows, perhaps for Christmas. I’m inner out of there in five minutes possibly pausing for a coffee. I don’t need to see any more things. I do need to have new experiences. People selling stuff does not do it for me.
Having decided on the periodicity and the theme, I then look at the distance. Somerset is a big county and it can take a couple of hours to go from one corner to the other so the prize would be for those less than 30 minutes away.
I also look for something original for example with Oak Hill we have the Back Room Boogie Band. These have to be a group of enthusiastic amateurs making a joyous noise but the very rough and ready un commercial sound appeals to me before I have even heard a note of their music.
Flower shows I don’t mind. Flower shows with something else added is more appealing. I see on Sunday we have the North Somerset agricultural society including a plowing match. Now, you’ve got me there, because I love agricultural machines of all types especially old machines and that includes petrol driven pump engines with their unique chuff chuff sound.
So we haven’t immediately made up our mind but my guess is that we will be going to Oak Hill, and at least one flower show.
PS on my transcription efforts
After my failed attempt – perhaps over ambitious ego driven attempt – to write a transcript of this week’s meeting which struck me so much I withdrew my offer saying it was too costly in time. Transcribing technical material is very difficult and there were currently about 34,000 words to process, as I have previously mentioned.
One of the speakers was kind enough to write to me and give me his speaker notes. He thanked me for my efforts and probably recognized I was being a little bit ambitious. I was moved to write back to him as follows:
Thank you for that which I will relish reading and imaging.
I have subsumed my original impulse to transcribe the whole SMN event largely on the grounds of mental and physical stress for something that was not entirely necessary.
I believe we should be living art installations. We have a choice of that or to be a robot and I do not think that is a middle point.
We are voices crying in the wilderness but this is nothing compared with what Jesus and the disciples must have felt as they went about proclaiming their vision.
Amidst all this madness, it is the integrity of the soul field and it’s relationship to the whole that is of supreme moment. Having said that, we do not have to ‘try’ to be us but recognize who we are.
For this we need mirrors, in other words exemplars, of human consciousness functioning as it is intended to do. That is why at the end of the day fellowship and friendship is as much of a magic key as we can hope for in this hopelessly compromised death and destruction we see around us.
Whatever happens, I hope you enjoy mulling over the text…and that you continue to be a beacon within these challenging times….so that we remain activated and not to fall into the slipstream of the ‘robosapien’…The art of closing a chapter
The point is that people do not behave well because maybe they have not been given the example by their own parents. In my case my father at the age of five was offered a hug by someone and he said and I quote ‘ what is a hug?’
If people have not been nurtured they cannot nurture. If people have been ignored, their Instinct or learned behaviour is to repeat this pattern and not care for others. However, I’m not saying this should be used as an excuse because we get a chance in our lives to remedy our defects by looking to others for an example.
As I am older it means I have had the benefit or the experience of seeing the behavior of many other people and in many cases I can look at what people are doing and say, ‘I did that at a certain age’ so this is just a stage they are going through. Forgiveness is not automatic but it makes it easier to be less stern with them.
—–VIDEO LIBRARY——-
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