Ordinary wisdom

SURVIVORS - BBC Tv series of the 1970s

2008-05-17T08:08:00.001-07:00

I read somewhere that the BBC were going to remake SURVIVORS as they had been in negotiation with the estate of Terry Nation who wrote the original idea and some episodes.

"Survivors - Series 1 - Complete [1975]" (Terence Dudley)

This was an incredible series that went on for 3 seasons and told the story of a group of people, lead by a woman called Abbey grant, surviving in the UK after an epidemic of some kind of plague, which it is suggested started in a Lab, wipes out 99% of the population. Like all these old series when watched again it can sometimes seem dated, on the other hand the challenges people face in mental, physical and moral dilemnas are timeless. It also I think survivors has something to say to todays world, especially in the light of peak oil and the transition town movement. If the first series made me reflect on how complicated our lives had become and our reliance on electronics, at least since the 1970s, In the second series as they begin to establish community I began to think very much about John Syemours self-sufficiency movement, his book first publsihed in the mid-seventies appeared to spawn the good life and must have had an effect on SURVIVORS. Funny enough, I got the book below ( a recent DK reprint and re-edit) for my birthday.

"The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers" (John Seymour)

SURVIVORS is a seminal series, I remember at the time people talking about it in the school yard on monday morning (the series aired on a sunday night) and it has a loyal following, and numerous websites here. I would recommend getting the DVD and re watching if you have seen it before or getting to know it for the first time. Just like I thought the monkees really were "coming to your town", I really thought Abbey Grant would reappear in the series, it would be great if and when the BBC remake if they could find a role for the actress that played Abbey again.

Labour: what is it for, what does it stand for

2008-05-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

At a recent meeting we discussed this, in fact the topic brought a few people along that had not been active for a while, just as this topic has brought me back to my blog.
This incredible loss, both in London and across the country is an opportunity for renwal, not for more of the same. Its certainly what the conservatives have done.
Gordon Brown has made an excellent chancellor but he is not PM or leadership material, its time we faced it, if you dont look good for the media you just wont be successful, he can be intelligent, clever, politically astute and so on but the media must love you, better to have Gordon as the man behind the throne than on it.
But who ever leads the party, the Labour Party needs to decide and understand what its for. Blairs unity and policy as well as Tory corruption got us back and allowed us to hold power, but we have lost our way, nothing in what we do gives clarity to who we are and what we feel about how society should be.
Nothing could make this clearer than the 10% tax debacle.
The face of politics has been changed by the overload of information via tv and now mainly the internet. Appearing in some awful video on you tube is not going to change that, it is self delusional to think this will make us popular with the "kids". A young man at my place of work who is 18 in the middle of May said to me the other day "I wish they would stop calling us kids".
It seems to me, after a period in power politicians at the top are surrounded by the wrong people, and they make decision based on a misguided view of holding onto power rather than policy that will be to the benefit of a fairer society.
So what is labour for, what do they stand for, at the discussion, there was a desire for radical policy that made for a fairer society, the gap between rich and poor was mentioned a lot. Education was mentioned, not just in schools, but a civic education, that stressed our social and community responsibilities. People did mention our history of representing the working class and there was debate around the word socialism and whether it could be reclaimed in a positive way.
Some mention was made of real politic and the desire of national politicians , to be at the seat of power and the fear that if we really put into practise some so called "left wing" policy that we would be removed in a Chris Mullin "very british coup" sort of way. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
So we have 2 years in which to reestablish an identity and a direction one that looks good in the media and is backed by a radical substance. Labour needs to be seen to recognise the everyday needs of a population, and their everyday concerns, to provide services and support that meet those needs and concerns.... all those at a disadvantage, however unpopular this might seem, need to prioritised, at the same time, middle england must be persuaded that the disadvantaged are their responsibility too, because their is no society unless we create it together, and we badly need a fairer society.
2 years, in which to create some radical policy, we need to challenge poverty and challenge the causes of poverty, to stand up for those that work hard and want to be party of a caring community, and be seen to support those that support the fabric of our community from nurses to roadsweepers, prison officers to firefighters and the police to small business.
Stand up for those that can't do it for themselves, and bind them to gether, Labour for me has always been about the power of the collective, speaking a truth to power,
2 years, to get it right, because otherwise come 2010 we will lose and lose big, maybe we will lose anyhow, but at least we can say we finished the job.
I remember the empty shops and mass unemployment where I live, I remember being our of work, I remember the changes Labour brought, but I am also aware of what they did not do, nows the chance to do it.
(and one small question, why did we not bring in PR in the national elections when we had a chance, )
So what are Labour for and what do we stand for...at the moment not alot, the past is gone, a handful of dust, we must move forward, with radical steps to create a fairer society, do I beleive browbn is the person who can do this.....YES, but can he front it....I am not sure, an ideas man but not a leader.
Labour: For a Fairer Society

Lost in the forest

2008-04-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes said the man
I am lost in a forest
being shot by the trees in a war of attrition
Perhaps I call out
I can't quite remember,
In dreamy filled voice
Of my own volition.

And I follow the path
that I've followed before
Watching patterns of sun on the forest floor
Perhaps I turn round
and I beg on my knees
and they place the blindfold
as Im shot by the trees.

Setting out a civil marriage ceremony

2008-03-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

Marriage of Jonathan Spencer and Elaine Coady

Music: As people are coming in a musician (our friend phil ...see www.jomojames.com ) is playing and then after seating sings (Van Morrison: Crazy Love)

Elaine and Jonathan come in to Trumpet March/Voluntary

Jonathan will have his two older children Freya and Roland standing by him with the rings as ring bearers

8th March 2008

Please be Seated

Greetings and Welcome from the conducting Registrar....

I would like to ask you to take a few moments of silence to remember those who are

important to us who cannot be here today, for Elaine that is her mother NORRIE and for

Jonathan his father Raymond. (this period of silence to be not too long)

The ﬁrst piece that elaine and jonathan have asked for will be read by Roger

Reading:

Ann Morrow Lindbergh - A Good Relationship Has a Pattern Like a Dance

A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The

partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move conﬁdently in the same

pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch

heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly

changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the

clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face

to face, now back to back -- it does not matter which. Because they know they are

partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly

nourished by it.

The room is sanctioned and the Law explained

You are here today to witness the joining in marriage of Jonathan Spencer and Elaine

Marie Coady but before proceeding with the ceremony, I must ask that if any person

knows of any lawful reason why these two may not be married, he or she should declare it

now.

Here we will pause and Camilla will read

Reading: Gabrielle Garcia Marquez - If I Knew That Today

If I knew that today would be the last time I’d see you, I would hug you tight and pray the

Lord be the keeper of your soul. If I knew that this would be the last time you pass through

this door, I’d embrace you, kiss you, and call you back for one more. If I knew that this

would be the last time I would hear your voice, I’d take hold of each word to be able to

hear it over and over again. If I knew this is the last time I see you, I’d tell you I love you,

and would not just assume foolishly you know it already

The Ceremony

Before you are joined in matrimony, I have to remind you both of the solemn and binding

character of the vows you are about to make. You will be making vows ﬁrstly that you are

free to marry; and secondly that you take each other as partners in marriage to love, care

for and support one another in the years which lie ahead. Do you both feel ready to make

these vows? (Jonathan and Elaine stand)

Jonathan and Elaine, you have gathered about you people who are part of your lives. You

have invited them here to receive their encouragement and support and to celebrate with

you at this special time.

I ask you now in the presence of this company...

Jonathan will you take Elaine to be your lawful wedded wife. Will you be loving and

faithful to her for the rest of your lives together (I will)

Elaine will you take Jonathan to be your lawful wedded husband. Will you be loving and

faithful to him for the rest of your lives together (I will)

I will now ask each of you to declare that you are free to marry

Starting with the groom, please repeat after me...

I do solemnly declare that I know not of any lawful impediment why I Jonathan Spencer

may not be joined in matrimony to Elaine Marie Coady

I do solemnly declare that I know not of any lawful impediment why I Elaine Marie Coady

may not be joined in matrimony to Jonathan Spencer

We now come to the heart of the ceremony in which you take each other as partners in

marriage ( All stand; bride and groom face each other)

I call upon these persons here present to witness that I Jonathan Spencer do take thee

Elaine Marie Coady to be my lawful wedded wife.

I call upon these persons here present to witness that I Elaine Marie Coady do take thee

Jonathan Spencer to be my lawful wedded husband.

Reading

Finally we come to the exchange of rings...A ring is a never ending circle which traditionally

symbolises marriage.

EXCHANGE RINGS:

I give you this ring as a symbol of the promises I have made to you today. May you wear it

with love and happiness, now and always.

I give you this ring as a symbol of the promises I have made to you today. May you wear it

with love and happiness, now and always.

You have both made the declarations required by law and have made solemn and binding

promises to each other before us all here today. It gives me great pleasure to declare that

you are now husband and wife.

Please be seated....

For the ﬁnal reading from Bella...

READING:

From the inauguration speech of Nelson Mandela

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are

powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask

ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you

not to be? You are a child of the Universe. Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure

around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest

the greatness of the life that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do

the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates

others.

(followed by)

Patrick Hawes: music (no words)”towards the light” (first track) whilst signing the

after

the best is yet to come by michael buble

Finis

Lets get married

2008-03-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

So after a divorce and swearing I would never do it again, i got married!

It was such a lovely day.

Doing fine

2008-02-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

after a chat in the pub recently and thinking about setting up a website so people could complain, along comes something altogether better and the opposite end of the scale, a forum so you can tell everyone about your successes and whats going well for you

check it out by clicking the doing fine logo.

I wonder if they are really doing fine, will remove the logo in a week or so.

Mastoiditis - ear infections in children

2008-02-26T00:31:00.000-08:00

So last saturday my daughter woke with her right ear sticking out, as she has rather petite flat ears this was a little odd. She has just has 4 teeth come through at the same time and had spent a week with her temperature going up a little (so we thought) and a bit of whimpering in her sleep during the night. We thought maybe she had slept on it in a bad way or knocked it in her cot. However I though it didn't look right and she needed to see the doctor.

As an interlude a point on thermometers for children...do not get those ones that are a strip you hold against the forehead, as one doctor said to us they are about as useful as one of those magic fish (that chaneg colour on your hand) that you get from a cracker)

So we took her to the emergency doctor and we were blessed because this doctor said although it was unusually rare, he thought our daughter had mastoiditis he had seen it once before and recognised the symptoms. He didn't want to panic us but it was a medical emergency! We zipped off to the local hospital, got a diagnosis and were then admitted to the childrens hospital. Where our daughter was given intravenous antibiotics.

So what is mastoiditis:

Mastoiditis is usually a consequence of a middle ear infection (acute otitis media). The infection may spread from the ear to the mastoid bone of the skull. The mastoid bone fills with infected materials and its honeycomb-like structure may deteriorate. Mastoiditis most commonly affects children. Before antibiotics, mastoiditis was one of the leading causes of death in children. Now it is a relatively uncommon and much less dangerous disorder. Except ti seems there is an arument in the medical profession related to research that suggested a amjority of middle ear infections in children did better when not treated with antibiotics. A skull X-ray or head CT scan or CT of the ear may show an abnormality in the mastoid bone. A culture of drainage from the ear may show bacteria.

The usual symptoms are:

Ear pain or discomfort
Swelling behind ear, may cause ear to stick out
Redness of the ear or behind the ear
Fever, may be high or suddenly increase
Headache
Drainage from the ear

I think we were blessed in that we noticed and acted early, many would not and that is where the danger lies in further infection to the bone, eye or brain in serious cases. After a couple of days we were allowed to go home with oral antibiotics to give her and this seems to have done the trick. A nasty scare.

Bespoke suit from Raja Fashions - Don't do it

2008-02-22T01:34:00.000-08:00

So I am getting married in a couple of weeks, just a small family get together with a few friends. I have been married before so this is a UK civil wedding. I am not a great suit wearer, so am not experienced in these things, but I decided to get a grey suit ( partly because in the tradition of weddings a grey morning suit is worn, so i was paying homage to this and partly because I am not a great believer in the groom attempting to outshine the bride with some garish outfit that gets everyone talking) and thought about getting an off the peg suit from Jermyn Street. Then I saw the advert for Raja fashions, the Hong Kong tailor who is selling bespoke suits at supposedly cut prices. To do this they measure you up in a hotel suite and your measurements are then sent to the tailor for the cutting and tailoring and the suit is sent to you by post.

I did wonder about this but there are many articles and press cuttings on their site at www.raja-fashions.com that promote the wonders of their suits. Many of the articles appear to be written by journalists that have gone along for a suit of their own, and boy did they get a good price, check out the one from the Spectator. This created an idea in my head that I was going to get a bargain. I was charged £500 for a lightweight cloth suit , and that is not in my mind a bargain, unless the suit fits like a kid glove and makes you feel like a million dollars....especially as the guy in the Spectator was charged 300 for a superior cloth.

Anyhow i let them measure me up, and now realise that al is in the measuring, you are in the hands of this guy, if he doesn't get it right you are stuffed.

I explained to them that the suit was for my wedding. why is it when you do this whether its for clothes, food, drink or services, it inevitably makes you feel as if you are being charged more. e.g Why does a bouquet of flowers normally costing £25 suddenly cost £45? I digress. I explained I needed it quickly and they carefully measured me up, in fact 3 guys measured me over and over again.

"The Three-piece Suit and Modern Masculinity: England, 1550-1850 (Studies on the History of Society & Culture)" (D Kuchta)

A month or so later the suit arrived....the cloth did not look like the cloth I picked, it looked hard and had a shine, the cloth I picked looked soft and did not appear to have a shine. The jacket fitted reasonably well, ibut was a little short in the arms, the trousers were unfortunately a joke. All the time they spent measuring me, I think they forgot about the inside leg. Too tight in the waist, and believe me I am not a fatty, i go to the gym regularly and in the run up to the wedding have been very careful about looking good and feeling fit; then I noticed the trousers were also flapping round my ankles. Perhaps these were trousers for someone else? But no they were marked with my order number. Disaster! Now they do offer tailoring alterations once your suit arrives but as any hairdresser will tell you, you can always make it shorter but you can't easily make it longer (ok ok you could have hair extensions sown in...but you know what I mean) and I am tight for time. So what to do.

Now when I first made my enquiry they answered within 15 hours, lets see what happens now and where we go from here, but I don't recommend it and will probabaly have to buy an off the peg suit just in case. Too expensive, bad measuring, and lack of customer after sales support. Off the peg doesn't seem so bad now.

So after 5 emails they came back to me offering to see me on the Monday (the 3rd) before my wedding, I must admit that they were very co operative, and arranged with Hong Kong to get a new pair of trousers made up pronto, and they measured me again, and all this before my wedding on Saturday. UPS parcels knocked on the door Thursday and hey presto a new pair of trousers. I must admit i looked good at my wedding, but I still feel ripped off. Why? because they claim to be offering measured suits at reasonable prices, nd this is plainly not the case. All the journalists that seemed to have written articles on them and had a suit made got theirs at a much better price. I even haggled over the price, which in my opinion is a bad thing, if there was room for manoeuvre, this means they were trying to over charge me in te first place, not a great place to build a relationship of trust.

If I use this kind of service again, it would be more than likely one where I measured myself,as they are springing up all over, definitely not Raja Fashions.

"THINK IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU MAY BE MISTAKEN." ....MORE ON THIS QUAKER STATEMENT

2008-02-20T02:03:00.000-08:00

I have said before how empowering i have found this sentence....however I think often this is how it works: There should be no war...am I mistaken (thinks for 2 seconds) nah, I am right. How hard is it to really think deeply that all you have believed and held dear, perhaps even used as the building blocks of your life may be wrong? Many of us have tennets we use as the structure and constructs for our lives, they determine who we are, who we relate to and the jobs and lives we live...what if in all that,you were mistaken.? Are you willing to encompass that thought...?

The Closest we get to this is when we are forced to it, those (and their families) who are diagnosed with terminal illness, when there is a death of someone close to you, or you marriage or family breaks up.

These kinds of life events and the change in thinking and feeling they bring can often uplift and strengthen a family or in some cases destroy it completely, perhaps this is what we fear, that destruction.

Because of this fear we are unwilling to approach those important subjects surrounded by a kind of invincible ignorance, with our doubts....there is only one God, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and so on.

Perhaps doubting Thomas is in the story of Jesus for a reason, in some apocryphal books it is suggested he was Jesus Twin, so that with every act of faith and empowerment comes one of doubt and questioning. Remember also the true meaning of Jihad is "inner struggle"

Perhaps real faith is one that lacks conviction and certainty, one that is racked by doubts and fears, one that is willing to question its own validity and look at its foundations as well as its highest towers....but continues anyway.

Could you think you might be mistaken?

The Laughter of Women

2008-02-19T00:02:00.000-08:00

Sometimes in the use of verse one line or two can catch you and draw you in, I like this line:

Prisoners held in underground cells

imagine that they see daylight

when they remember the laughter of women

"Alive Together: New and Selected Poems" (Lisel Mueller)

mainly because it reminded me of a woman I know who had the most incredible laugh, one that sounded like the peel of bells and made me see daylight...

The Laughter Of Women

The laughter of women sets fire

to the Halls of Injustice

and the false evidence burns

to a beautiful white lightness

It rattles the Chambers of Congress

and forces the windows wide open

so the fatuous speeches can fly out

The laughter of women wipes the mist

from the spectacles of the old;

it infects them with a happy flu

and they laugh as if they were young again

Prisoners held in underground cells

imagine that they see daylight

when they remember the laughter of women

It runs across water that divides,

and reconciles two unfriendly shores

like flares that signal the news to each other

What a language it is, the laughter of women,

high-flying and subversive.

Long before law and scripture

we heard the laughter, we understood freedom.

Lisel Mueller

Why can't white men dance

2008-02-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

worrying this might be a bit racist or on a par with "White men can't jump" ...great escapist film by the way. So I asked Carmen, "but what about Justin Timberlake..." says Carmen.....I don't mean someone who has had a choreographer, and a trainer and so on. I mean the ordinary white male and free style dancing to something at a party or a dance or rave.

Renowned as I am for dancing down the aisles of supermarkets and putting smiles on faces, I am no dancer.

Is it a cultural and ethnic thing, I mean is it just that our arses are too tight (metaphorically speaking), or is it the freedom of the dance. Most of our modern popular music is derived from black american culture, which itself has its roots in Africa, and of course slavery. These beats, rhythms and melodies owe much to Africa and the time of slavery and emancipation.

Look at the popularity of ballroom dancing on the TV recently or the increase in barn dancing/folk dances. I have always loved these i feel more comfortable in dancing where I know what is going to happen, or someone is calling the steps and moves. It Is this framework that makes me better, not that I am that great at dancing to steps either.

When I got married to my first wife we had a barn dance in the evening and people loved it, no emabarassing dances and everyone could join in, I remember feeling physically exhilerated by the dancing.

So I get older it becomes more and more difficult, and my wife to be claims I can't dance but quite likes dancing with me as it puts a smile on her face, I may not be that great but I am relatively uninhibited.

Get on up like a sex machine, or take your partners by the hand,... as they say

The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistos (hermes the thrice great)

2008-02-01T15:53:00.000-08:00

Corpus Hermeticum

This is part of one of the great esoteric texts, and is a statement of positive existence The Tablet probably first appeared in the West in editions of the psuedo-Aristotlean Secretum Secretorum which was actually a translation of the Kitab Sirr al-Asrar, a book of advice to kings which was translated into latin by Johannes Hispalensis c. 1140 and by Philip of Tripoli c.1243. Other translations of the Tablet may have been made during the same period by Plato of Tivoli and Hugh of Santalla, perhaps from different sources.

When I entered into the cave, I received the tablet zaradi, which was inscribed, from between the hands of Hermes, in which I discovered these words:
1) True, without falsehood, certain, most certain.
2) What is above is like what is below, and what is below is like that which is above. To make the miracle of the one thing.
3) And as all things were made from contemplation of one, so all things were born from one adaptation.
4) Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon.
5) The wind carried it in its womb, the earth breast fed it.
6) It is the father of all ‘works of wonder' (Telesmi) in the world.
6a) Its power is complete (integra).
7) If cast to (turned towards- versa fuerit) earth,
7a) it will separate earth from fire, the subtile from the gross.
8) With great capacity it ascends from earth to heaven. Again it descends to earth, and takes back the power of the above and the below.
9) Thus you will receive the glory of the distinctiveness of the world. All obscurity will flee from you.
10) This is the whole most strong strength of all strength, for it overcomes all subtle things, and penetrates all solid things.
11a) Thus was the world created.
12) From this comes marvelous adaptions of which this is the proceedure.
13) Therefore I am called Hermes, because I have three parts of the wisdom of the whole world.
14) And complete is what I had to say about the work of the Sun, from the book of Galieni Alfachimi.

further from Hermes Trismegistos...

If then you do not make yourself equal to God, you cannot apprehend God: for like is known by like. Leap clear of all that is corporeal, and make yourself grow to a like expanse with that greatness which is beyond all measure; rise up above all time and become eternal; then you will apprehend God.

Think that for you too nothing is impossible;deem that you too are immortal, and that you are able to grasp all things in your thought, to know every craft and science; find yourself home in the haunts of every living creature; make yourself higher than all heights, and lower than all depths; bring together in yourself all opposites of quality, heat and cold, dryness and fluidity; think that you are everywhere at once, on land, at sea, in heaven; think that you are not yet begotten, that you are in the womb, that you are young, that you are old, that you have died, that you are in the world beyond the grave: grasp in your thought all this at once, all times and places, all substances and qualities and magnitudes together; then you can apprehend God.

But if you shut up your soul in your body and abase yourself and say, ‘I know nothing, I can do nothing, I am afraid of earth and sea, I cannot mount to heaven; I do no know what I was, nor what I shall be’; then what have you to do with God?
Your thought can grasp nothing beautiful or good, if you cleave to the body, and are evil. For it is the height of evil not to know God; but to be capable of knowing God, and to wish and hope to know God, is the road which leads straight to the Good and it is an easy road to travel.

Everywhere God will come to meet you, everywhere God will appear to you, at places and times which you look not for it, in your waking hours and in your sleep, when you are journeying by water and land, in the night time and in the day time, when you are speaking and when you are silent: for there is nothing which is not God. And do you say “God is invisible’? Speak not so. Who is more manifest than God.

Instructions from the rich and famous

2008-01-17T01:44:00.001-08:00

I am sick of getting instructions from the rich and famous on how to live my life. As the father of 3 children one of whom is not yet one, I am concerned about the future, about the way we live our lives and treat our world.

BUT, if another bloody celebrity chef tells me what I should be eating, that much of our food is mass produced and then not in a nice way, that if you put horseshit on your lettuce rather than a bag of corporate fertilizer you will have saved yourself as well as the world, I will scream.

Then its onto style and what we should have in your house, the way it should look and feel.

Oh then as Julie Burchill pointed out in todays Guardian, its all these middle and upper middle class people writing about what a hard time they had on drugs and booze and divorce and you shouldn't do it.....oh please

Why when people get wealthy do they, only then, become so self righteous, what give these mulit millionaires the right to tell the rest of us how its meant to be. Beside the fact they have alot of money and dominate the visual media. Do they not realise their views of the world are subject to their wealth. Its like the joke about the Queen who thinks everywhere else smells of disinfectant.

Now there are also the self righteous Greens who also want to tell us how we ought to live...no plastic bags, no oil based products, no this not that. Yet why does the public face of greendom always seem so upper middle class. Wealth and Social standing buys you alot of space, an electric car and quite a number of expensiive Jute bags.

The point is there is nothing intrinsically bad with much of what these people suggest, much of it is meet and right, as they used to say in the Old Church Service. But just think what this means if you are vaguely short of money....

I was looking at free range organic chickens in Waitrose yesterday for a minimum of £10, but an ordinary chicken was £3, plastic bags were free, yet a jute bag was £3 This is just a small part of the additional cost in so called ethical or gren shopping. Never mind that inflation has increased the cost of fod enormously then you have to spend all this extra money you do not have. Farming became an industry so everyone could have affordable food, I think these media class people have another hidden message when they say that this kind of farming is wrong.

    "Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao" (Dr Wayne W Dyer)

The real answer to much of this "what you ought to be buying" thing, is actually you shouldn't. No really you just shouldn't buy, at the very least cut down drastically...For example, Its not plastic bags that are the biggest problem in landfill,(though they are a problem) but waste food. We generally buy 1/3 more food than we really need, that excess gets thrown away. We live in a throw away society, we are recycling things that really shouldn't even be produced. Yet even this has a knock on effect and its ordinary working people that will suffer the knock. Buy less means the need to produce less, means less people employed.

Now we are being informed that eco light bulbs are full of poisoned chemicals and corn starch bags (replacements for plastic bags) add to the problem in landfill because as they rot they increase the methane production

In that instant and looking around at more self righteous millionaires who dont want to leave anything to their children ( I feel another round of sob story books coming on) I had a blinding flash of enlightenment that nothing had really changed at all, the change that was being asked for was really more of the same.

When Fernley Wittingstall or whatever he is called, bad mouthed an estate in Axminster, he appeared to me to really be saying, we dont need your type anymore. The great unwashed can now be phased out as they will never change and anyway, as I have just pointed out, cannot afford the suggested changes.The Upper Classes know whats right, we will decide whats good for you, from ideas sown on the playing fields of Eton. Because of course they must be right musn't they.

Christmas stress and expectations

2007-12-25T23:23:00.000-08:00

Well it was our new daughters first Christmas and I had my older children from my first marriage coming round and staying over Christmas eve as well as my partners sister, who likes to be known as super aunt and does a pretty good job. Oh yes and my 80 year old mother came round, who at the moment is exhibiting alot of very negative outlooks and i suspect would rather be dead.

The pressures on making Christmas into "this wonderful life" and living up to all the songs from "a child is born" to "white christmas" is immense. The presents, the food and more is all stress on the wallet and bank balance.

For us this often means someone gets ill, in our case our new daughter was trying out the nursery where there had been a couple of cases of diarhoea and vomiting. So a day or so later the weekend before christmas she started being sick, by Christmas Eve I was also vomiting quite violently and on Christmas day we managed to get the presents open but then in it all went pear shaped. Our daugher vomited bacame inconsolable and in the end we too her to the community hospital (more for our reassurance than hers). My older children were stoical but the meal and the rest of the festivities were ruined.

Lets hope boxing day can be better, as we are all feeling alot better and are off to a local grudge football match.

Dont let the pressures of Christmas get you down, we had such high hopes for babies first christmas but she had other ideas, presents and food are great but its the binding of family and community that seem important to me.

And by the way if I hear another person talking about how the spirit has gone from Christmas, I will scream. The 25 th December was the birthday of the sun god Mithras, and aslo the celebration of the Roman Saturnalia. In the north of Europe, at Yule, Odin came down through the smoke hole of the houses at night (the doors were barred it was his only entrance) to bring blessings to the house, and freya wandered the twons with her decorated pine staff knocking at doors to bring fertility and plenty. In later times the Lord of Misrule and the world turned upside down became part of the winter festivities, where over eating and drinking were the order of the day. The Christian story has been a very late addition to this and the winter period has long been a festival of riotous excess.

So maybe christmas isn't all we thought it was not all it could be. Anyone for another slice of turkey, we have alot as no one has been eating much.

Cooking a turkey in the aga

2007-12-24T02:44:00.000-08:00

Always remember times for cooking a turkey are from room temperature, if you leave it too long in the fridge it can take longer to cook and the middle may not get done leaving the spectre of food poisoning...be warned!

Taken it out of the refrigerator and leave in a cool room for several hours before cooking. Better stil I keep mine outside or in the garage, wrapped three times and netted over (just incase of cats etc)

Aga turkey Roasting Times

The internal temperature of raw poultry should rise from room temperature to 60°C within 4 hours at the start of cooking. With a cooking slow method this is very important, which is why you heat the turkey ionitially in the raosting oven.

All cooking times are approximate.

"The Traditional Aga Christmas" (Louise Walker)

Fast method (2,3 and 4 oven Aga cookers)

Rub liberally with butter or goose fat, place on streaky bacon etc. Place in the Aga roasting tin, on a grill rack if liked. Hang from the lowest set of runners in the Roasting Oven for one hour until nicely browned, then tent loosely with foil.

The TOTAL fast method roasting times are:

8-12 lbs / 3.6-5.4Kg - 1¾- 2 hours

12-16 lbs / 5.4-7.25Kg - 2- 2½ hours

16-20 lbs / 7.25-9.0Kg - 2½ -3 hours

20-24 lbs / 9-10.8Kg - 3-3½ hours

24–28 lbs / 10.8–12.6Kg - 3½ - 4 hours

Medium Method (3 and 4 oven Aga cookers only)

Rub liberally with fat. Place in the Aga roasting tin, on a grill rack if liked. Hang from the lowest set of runners in the Roasting Oven for up to one hour until nicely browned, then tent loosely with foil. After the first hour in the Roasting Oven, transfer the turkey to the Baking Oven to finish cooking, for the following

ADDITIONAL times:

8-12 lbs / 3.6-5.4Kg - 1½ - 2½ hours

12-16 lbs / 5.4-7.25Kg - 2½ - 3½ hours

16-20 lbs / 7.25-9.0Kg - 3½ - 4½ hours

20-24 lbs / 9-10.8Kg - 4½ - 5½ hours

24–28 lbs / 10.8–12.6Kg - 5½ - 6½ hours

Slow Method (2, 3 and 4 oven Aga cookers)

Rub liberally with butter. Place in the Aga roasting tin without a grill rack. Roast on the floor of the Roasting Oven for up to one hour and as soon as it starts to brown, tent loosely with foil. After the first hour in the Roasting Oven, transfer the turkey to the Simmering Oven to finish cooking, for the following

ADDITIONAL times:

8-12 lbs / 3.6-5.4Kg - 3-5 hours

12-16 lbs / 5.4-7.25Kg - 5 – 7½ hours

16-20 lbs / 7.25-9.0Kg - 7½ - 10 hours

20-24 lbs / 9-10.8Kg - 10 – 12½ hours

24–28 lbs / 10.8–12.6Kg - 12½ - 15 hours

A native american tale of wisdom

2007-12-19T13:48:00.000-08:00

An elder from the Cherokee Nation was talking to his grandchildren about life.
He said to them...
“A fight is going on inside me... it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.
The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you and in every other person, too.”
They thought about this for a while, and then one child spoke up and asked her grandfather... “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied... “The one you feed.”

Who would work in IT at Christmas

2007-12-18T13:33:00.000-08:00

Who would work in IT at Christmas, most people using computers in your company aren't actually working they are either browsing for presents on the net or actually buying them, or doing their grocery or lingerie shopping. Whilst doing this they take their eye of the ball and either delete important files from a server or infect your system with the latest killer virus.

Working in IT you can never get it right. Either the world is rosy and people begin to wonder what it is you do exactly as the system works perfectly, or else its all wrong and why wasn't someone their to fix it yesterday.

Of course there are the people who work for your comapany that got the job on the promise that they knew all these applications and had worked with them for years, but continue to ask you when you are dealing with a major network emergency..."how to do you open/launch word again".

For the 24/7 people who must keep a system safe and secure at all costs, this can mean Christmas working, so spare a thought for them.

The there's the secret santa thing, why do people assume that if you work in IT you are some kind of grunt, that would not appreciate a decent present, and the show stopper is the party where you meet that beautiful HR executive, or the arty graphics manager and no matter your degree in art history and your time in the sorbonne, its a question of oh yes you're the IT....Manager/Engineer/Director/Administrator.....oh look theres Dave from sales.

The only payback is you know all their dirty secrets, its why you should never sack anyone in IT, as they know where the bodies are buried and the baies are born....in this case a manger is not a blade system running linux.

The final speech of Chaplin's The Great Dictator

2007-11-25T12:28:00.000-08:00

I think The Great Dictator is one of Charlie Chaplins most interesting films, and this speech at the end of the film made not by the dictator but by his double the Jewish Barber, still strikes me as having deep meaning and as being as true today as in the 1940s:

"I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor - that's not my business - I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish...

Soldiers - don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate - only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers - don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written " the kingdom of God is within man " - not one man, nor a group of men - but in all men - in you, the people.

"Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator [1940]" (Warner Home Video)

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers - in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting - the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings - and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow - into the light of hope - into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up."

England, Euro 2008 and the germans had the right idea

2007-11-22T02:04:00.000-08:00

I heard it say after their 1966 loss to England the Germans went back and changed things root and branch in the German game and then dominated European and world football for 25+years from the 1970 world cup onward. Players of those times also went on to be good managers too.

We always look for a scapegoat or scapegoats. This is because we are a nation of jobsworth shopkeepers when it comes to this stuff. And now because the FA shop is overflowing with money and all players have pockets full of money because of TV we are stuck.

The last radical thing the FA did was appoint Alf Ramsey....its worth reading his biog on Wikipedia to undertand his ability both as a player and as a manager with Ipswich ( a bit like Mourhino with Porto) I am always repeating the Jack Charlton interview where he said to Ramsey, thanks for picking him, Ramsey replied something on the lines of ...your not the best defender Jack but you fit into my system. This seems to me a part of the present problem, we play all the best players but there is no team spirit or team system. The last person to buck this, Hoddle, who dropped the flagging Gazza, was vilified. Our Managers don't play the best TEAM, they play the best players, my belief is for example, that certain players dont like each other and therefore dont play well together.

  "Winning Isn't Everything: Biography of Sir Alf Ramsey" (Dave Bowler)

Because of the money involved in the UK and to a great extent the Euro game with the buying rather than nurturing of players its virtually impossible to do a Ramsey or a Clough and take an unknown team to the pinnacle of the game. This creates difficulties in judging who should be the best manager for a national side. As all the managers who acheive anything are not English. Without changes in the game its not worth appointing anyone as the whole circus will carry on. It now looks like Sven did his best with a bad situation.

If English football has become such a business its board as much as the manager needs to go. They also lack the drive and understanding of success. Look at the balance of the board, the seem mainly from the south...and I am hard pressed to understand their qualification except they work in football at different levels. We need tough people like Ken Bates and Dave Whelan, we also need outside business people and advisors as members of this board, what about some women too. If we want to attract families why are they only represented by men.

At the bottom we need money filtered through to join football and the education system to local clubs, much as they do in the USA with many sports, why isn't this happening. We need players with tactical and intellectual intelligence as well as football skills. We need greater fan involvement between fans and player, coaches and management. Why couldn't the team raise a smile or wave to fans as they got off their coach last night at wembley.

  "The Official FA Guide to Psychology for Football (Football Association)" (Andrew Cale)

The way to make this happen is to use crowd power, hit them in the pocket, planned match boycotts is possible next step.

Heather Mills McCartney

2007-11-20T02:57:00.001-08:00

I wonder whether the media are preparing to send Heather Mills down the David Icke Road of Sad, Bad and Mad. Yes heather mills who married Paul McCartney and didn't get on with his kids.
I am not sure if I have the right order there. First they say you are sad, then bad and finally claim you are mad and in this way everything you say and do is discredited. I say this because something about Heather Mills and saying rats milk would solve food problems was in the paper today. And no matter what she does she is being made to look bad and mad, from the photos being printed in the press to the way the Tv coverage is slanted.
I also wonder why it is we love to vilify women who are outspoken and articulate and put over a representation of themeselves that is not subservient. Even in todays climate of a nod at equality or what i would call quasi-equality, successful women still have to appear a little subservient to the male system.
Look at the message sent out in The Devil Wears Prada, in a fine performance by Meryl Streep we learn that tough business women lose their husbands and have to hurt their friends in order to succeed but a women who follows her man and his career finds love and happiness.

  "The Devil Wears Prada [2006]" (David Frankel)

I know little about Paul McCartney except he was once one of the lovable liverpudlian fab four and then later married to the vegitarian Linda Eastman (she of Kodak-Eastman..the camera people). and had a band called Wings. He has vast sums of money and has projected a lovable image and produced many, slightly sickly, in my opinion, but very popular songs.
However to me in all this he doesn't look good and the worse the media paint his wife Heather Mills the more of it sticks to him, and Jonathan Ross and the thing about her being a liar (even about her leg) was just rubbish. I like Ross's humour but that just was spiteful ...I have heard it say he's seen in McCartney's company too.
So why am I bothered, i mean its just two highly paid entertainers battling it out, and it sells newspapers. I care because i think people in these powerful positions should set examples, and the need to be good examples, this is the responsibility that money brings. These two people don't realise this. In this grasping world what exactly is this battle exemplifying....except greed corruption desire spite and also the position of women in our society, shame on you both.

  "The Unsinkable Heather Mills: The Unauthorized Biography" (Neil Simpson)

Jonathan Spencer's Recipe for flapjack and Crunch

2007-11-18T13:56:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid holidaying in Filey with my grandma flapjack was a thing called crunch, exactly the same as modern flapjack but crunchy, my suspicions are that modern flapjack was arrived at because as it is soft it has a longer shelf life, where as Crunch when it goes soft is no longer Crunch....

Ingredients:

Porridge oats 125 g
Rolled oats 100g
Jumbo oats 25g
Margarine/butter 150 g
Golden syrup/honey (honey makes it much sweeter) 75 g
Sugar 75 g

What you need to make it:

saucepan, Knife, wooden spoon or similar (to mix ingredients with). Pallet knife (to press into cake tin with). Scales, Square shallow baking tin about 20 cm sided. Greaseproof paper. oh yes and an oven/hob

Grease your baking tray and line with greaseproof paper
Put the margarine/butter, sugar & golden syrup/honey in saucepan and heat stirring continuously, until you have a liquid.
Mix all the oats into the liquid.
Put the mixture into the baking tin & press flat the fatter it is the softer it will be.
Bake at 175 deg C (Gas Mark 4) for 25 to 30 minutes or until goldeen on top
Slice into 8 fingers before it sets but leave it in the tin.
Then leave it to cool and set.

For Crunch use add 25g to the porridge oats and leave out the jumbo oats, in a larger tin spread the mixture thinly and cook at 20deg or 1 gas mark hotter (200 deg C Gas mark 5) until a dark golden brown.

You can also ad dried fruit to both types for a fruity flapjack, although my favourite is to add a couple of tablespoons of christmas mincemeat to make a seasonal flapjack...yum

don't forget if you use a recipe please tell us how it turned out or any improvements add to the comments.
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Did we earn it, on Rememberance Day - Did we earn the peace?

2007-11-11T05:56:00.000-08:00

I decided after coming back from worship to watch Saving Private Ryan. It is the end of this film that leaves me with a profound sense of sadness and foreboding. As the captain lays dieing he whispers in Private Ryans ear "earn this" and then we cross fade to the same Private Ryan some 50 years later in one of the great war grave cemeteries before the Captains grave stone, asking his wife whether he was a good man and had led a good life.

I found this scene very upsetting, as I feel that Spielberg is asking us the very same thing, have you earnt the life that others died to give you, have you been a good person. Although the world seems to be coming round again to subtle forms of totalitarianism, depending on whose side you are on, we find ourselves without the SS and a death camp outside every town, with out the massive pits filled with lime and bodies or the rounding up of all those we see as anomalous.

Have we earnt it? I am not sure we have. I do no think we would be coming full circle to the corrupt, totalitarianism of global capitalism in the form of todays western government, Chinese communism, Russian and eastern European gangsterism or Muslim invincible ignorance, if we had really been living good lives.

When we remember the dead of the great wars and some after, the need is often to ask what they died for, a better question is whether they died in vain and and can we stop their deaths being in vain. Not by appeasement as happened after the first world war but in speaking truth to power. How can we reach those not living good lives, but lives of greed and avarice, who are happy for others to die for them as long as they and theirs can continue in what they have.

I would urge everyone today to remember the living not the dead and our responsibility to make those deaths worthy, rather than sordid, to remember that our lives, our freedoms, the few the we really own were bought with the lives of others.

In Phillip K Dicks, Nebula Award winning: The Man in the High Castle, a world where Germany and Japan win the war is described.

  "The Man in the High Castle (Penguin Modern Classics)" (Philip K. Dick)

In many ways it is little different from the one we know, in fact the Japanese influence is seen as more civilising. The Germans when alluded to are mentioned in the same breath as something dreadful they have done in Africa for more lebensraum. It is a fantasy and we can not be proud of our work in Africa. My point here is that the murderous nature of Nazism knew no bounds and would have effected all non-aryan races, colours and creeds eventually. Muslims today also have to thank the dead of the great world wars for their continued existence and perhaps they too need to ask standing shoulder to shoulder with ourselves ...have we earnt this?

As we turn full circle and see more camps and mass exterminations, and death by bullet and bomb, we might also have to ask was any of it worth, can war really bring peace, it if we do not give value in peace to the things people beleive they died for?

Explanation of Politics

2007-11-04T22:30:00.000-08:00

The Cow System

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT

You have two cows.

Your neighbor has none.

You feel guilty for being successful.

You Get rid of your leader

CONSERVATIVE

You have two cows.

Your neighbor has none.

So?

LABOUR

You have two cows.

The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.

You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST

You have two cows.

The government seizes both and provides you with milk.

You wait in line for hours to get it.

It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, US STYLE

You have two cows.

You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, US STYLE

You have two cows.

Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.

THE CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.

You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the stock market stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.

Your share price goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You go on strike because you want three cows.

You go to lunch and drink wine.

Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.

They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.

Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, are well orgainised and run a hundred miles an hour.

Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

ITALIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows but you don’t know where they are.

While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.

You break for lunch.

Life is good.

RUSSIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You have some vodka.

You count them and learn you have five cows.

You have some more vodka.

You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.

The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have. They sell the cows and take over a premier league football team.

TALIBAN CORPORATION

You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.

You don’t milk them because you cannot touch any creature’s private parts.

You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.

IRAQI CORPORATION

You have two cows.

They go into hiding.

They send radio tapes of their mooing.

BELGIAN CORPORATION

You have one cow.

The cow is schizophrenic.

Sometimes the cow thinks he’s French, other times he’s Flemish.

The Flemish cow won’t share with the French cow.

The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow’s milk.

The cow asks permission to be cut in half.

The cow dies happy.

FLORIDA CORPORATION

You have a black cow and a brown cow.

Everyone votes for the best looking one.

Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one.

Some people vote for both.

Some people vote for neither.

Some people can’t figure out how to vote at all.

Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow.

CALIFORNIA CORPORATION

You have millions of cows.

They make real California cheese.

Only five speak English.

Most are illegals.

Arnold gets them all in his big tent with the goats and the chickens

He is unsure whether to let them eat grass, as he does not know the difference between a leaf and drugs.

  "Spin Doctor's Diary" (Lance Price)

Right here right now

2007-10-30T05:44:00.000-07:00

Where ever you are, who ever you are, whatever your journey, whatever you are seeking, what ever you have found, who ever you are with....STOP

What you need is right here, right now.

Stop looking, stop searching, stop wanting to discover the secret, the hidden meaning, stop praying, stop mediitating, stop knocking...the door is already open.

If there is on great thing I have learnt from The Quakers, it is to be still, to stop trying, to stop doing and begin in the quiet and the silence to start being.

William Penn said:

“True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”

The other reason to stop is what Umberto Eco was writing about in Foucault's Pendulum, that we spend our lives searching for the key to the mysteries, the secret formula, the philosophers stone, the Da Vinci Code, The Holy Grail...when it is right there in front of us and we pass it by. The key is not a secret, the kingdom of heaven is within you.

Oh no not that religious stuff I hear you cry, no not if you don't want it, just stop, stop criticising, stop fighting stop working just to get, get get get have have have. In all of this there is one thing you do not really look at, do not really see and that is your true self.

William Penn again:
“Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee.”

and finally:

"Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it."

This invitation to stop is also an invitation to BE in the centre of who where and what you are, so you can truly say.. I am