“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
Ray Bradbury
I recently produced some material below for Bookmark People.
©julesprichards 
©julesprichards
I guess it follows on from my previous “reading” graphic that I produced. See here:
In the immortal words of Howard from the Great British Bake Off “oooooo it’s really annoyin’!”
The BBC’s Winterwatch last night was twittering about Cultural Transmission and stuff and how animals learn stuff and copy etc. Before you know it we’re all wearing jeans, shopping at Tesco and eating crisps. Heaven forbid.
Yesterday I commented that: “There are a lot of cyclists out there that need to take a second look at the way they cycle, and there a lot of drivers out there that need to take a second look at the way they drive…” – myself included!
I’m reminded that “there’s no manifestation in another, which is not also in ourselves, no act or attitude in another, which is not also found in us…” (Simon Parke One-Min.Med.)
Publicly and personally, it’s a daily task to be aware of who we are sharing our world and space with. There will always be people we disagree with and we will always have issues with certain things we encounter. But in public, common sense and the rules (or the law) are there to maintain a level playing field.
When playing sport if you disregarding the rules you are penalised for good reason. If you disagree with the rules, so be it, it might be a valid point, and there are ways of negotiating this.
“Teach the children well…”, not as I say but as I do…
I think blatant or overt disregard of the rules is not helpful.
But hey what do I know? “Each to his own”, “we need to accommodate everyone”, “they do it differently”, “multi-cultcha and all that”, “it doesn’t apply to me”, “horses for courses”, “what hole?”, “I know a better way”, “Look kids!”
I recently counted:
– Numerous drivers disregarding the law – speeding, dangerous and seemingly ignore-ant drivers.
– Ten people cycling at night with no lights, and obviously no protective or visibility wear?
– A few cyclists not even cycling dangerous weaving on and off the road.
– One crazy coot cycling without any of the above and on a mobile phone?
– Two cyclists seemingly ignoring the road markings?
Some days I wonder why bother to consider who we are sharing our world and space with? eh?
Cultural transmission… oh lordy… save us.
Van in the box – but hey who cares!
Woman on a bike no lights – I’M ON THE PHONE!!
Ignore the box – he did so I’m gonna too…
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*Oh, ho, ho It’s magic, you know Never believe it’s not so It’s magic, you know …
We looked a little closer at the grey cold damp wintery hedgerow this weekend… it’s all going on!
Male catkins releasing pollen to the pretty pink female flowers…
My pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/58480027@N02/sets/72157639925566735/
There’s a video showing the process here: http://www.arkive.org/hazel/corylus-avellana/video-09.html
I don’t usually like recommending stuff, and I guess I am not doing that now – “horses for courses” and all that but…
Over the last few years I have enjoyed many of Simon Parke’s books (I’ve yet to venture into the Abbot Peter Mysteries but IMHO the other stuff is “good stuff”). I have recently been offered his latest book and as I have said on my Amazon review “I’m finding One Min. Med. is Simon’s best yet!”.
Sharing this is the least I can do, due to the value I have got out of the many pages of his that I have read.
“Nuggets of gold!” 5.0 out of 5 stars
By Juniper Richards
It’s not “meditation” as you know it! Perhaps it’s simply taking a daily opportunity to think twice.
I find Simon Parke’s books have a knack of kindly and simply introducing the most profound and stimulating ideas in a friendly, simple and sometimes humorous way.
I’m finding One Min. Med. is Simon’s best yet!
Day-changing ideas are touched on in succinct, accessible, warm, unpretentious ways.
You are often left with every-day visualisations that remind you of ‘another way’.
“imagine your influence today was like the spreading of buttercups…”
“taking offence is a choice, just as succumbing to flattery is a choice…”
I don’t think I’m overdoing it to say this book could be a catalyst to potentially life-changing attitudes.
Pages I will return to often.
Nowt specific to focus on, but lots of eddies and currents going on. After the advent-urous Christmas excitements, January sees a wake of settling sediments.
I caught these two magpies this morning on the early morning walk with the dog. It’s usually Em that takes Bracken out, but occasionally, usually a Sunday, I’ll get up and out early leaving Em to lay in – realistically Em’s Sunday lay in will typically turn into and early morning fest with the kids.
One for sorrow, two for joy… yadda yadda… goes the ritual rhyme, there are various versions but we stop at two (as we did with the kids, a sighting of 3 or 4 magpies is not really entertained). We tell the kids that one for sorrow usually means that the one magpie has lost his friend but that it’s probably around somewhere you just have to look harder for it.
My mid-life turbulence is accompanied by a sort of ‘return to nature’ thing going on with the old personal world-view. I sense this might be reinforced by the infotainment media’s magnificent nature/science output, part of the bread and circus we are fed. We are served imagery and coverage that is just fantastic and ‘out of this world’! It’s easy to take for granted the stuff we see on our TV/PC screens but the common place close-ups and slow-mo we see would not have been dreamt of when we were young!
It’s a beautiful but also raw and cruel natural world; stuff blossoms, blooms, decays, dies, transforms. Stuff kills, feeds, struggles, in circles and rhythms – nature is a wondrous thing.
I have and for now will refrain from writing about my relationship to our dog. Save to say it’s significant. Bracken is/was Em’s project but I have taken to him full on. Yes he’s a dog and we try to maintain animal / human sensibilities, but one can’t help noticing the warmth of a living creature when he sleeps on your lap. When he looks for attention. When he shows ‘signs’ of affection. When he identifies with you as his ‘master’? It’s nature. An ongoing discovery.
The morning walks, as with the daily commutes, bring you closer to the elements and the seasons – again you feel closer to nature, more alive.
Where these ‘out of this world’ experiences link up with a supreme being, a creator, a trinitarian god, I cannot comprehend. Nature is not the biblical God, nature is a living breathing growing moving feast that shapes us and makes us what we are. Just look at the recent storms, that form and reform our environment. Just look at the fragile chemical soups that form our brains and characters. We constantly battle to forge our place in the natural world. We constantly battle to settle our physiology and psychology with drugs and medicine as well as habit and ritual. There’s a bigger thing than us indeed, but perhaps focusing on it becomes harder as life goes on.
OK, I’m also currently distracted by a few books and stuff that I received last month which will no doubt cause effect in due-course but generally there’s…
Nowt specific to focus on… ? except the world WE live in?
Ok, I might be slow coming to the party but at last I’ve made me own pasta.
The routine Saturday homemade pizza will now be shared with homemade pasta, thanks to the generous gift of a pasta-maker from my in-laws!
I have heard it said that once you’ve tried your own homemade pasta, you’ll never cook shop-dried pasta again… and i have to agree!
It’s easy!
Mix it, knead it a tad, press it, dry it a tad, and cut it any which way you fancy!
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East….
When storms disrupt the celebrated ‘bread and circus’…
Culture, music, stories, entertainment, adventure, wonder…
Over the holiday season it is not just food & drink that can be found in
abundance. Multifarious ‘circus’ is also omnipresent and plentiful.
The mystery of the season is enhanced with musical extravaganza, from reworked classic chestnuts to new compositions and anthemic winter-beating tunes.
Our TV & radio list tantalising new offerings for the coming year… *green button* “book it” don’t miss out!
Our tablets, phones etc offer visual delights and compulsive interaction that enchants (and beeps!). Our interaction? with ‘friends’ via our technology is neo-vibrant.
Our bedsides or ebooks are stocked with new mysteries and worlds where anything is possible, where shall we adventure away?
We can chose wisely from a feast of culture to colour and filter our world. It might enhance our outlook, it might illuminate new discovery, it may numb pain, it might amplify possibilities. We can celebrate achievements and advances that do indeed glorify life as we know it.
Yet where does this leave us when nature overcomes our constructions.
When storms disrupt travel. When illness inhibits our enjoyment. When loss clouds our vision. When greed kills our senses. When emptiness floods our
relationships. When human nature fails humanity…
The broken tool, the empty Smartie tube, the end of the book, the final episode, the end of a song, the dismissible ‘status’, the deletable email, the last Rolo, the broken person?…
Juvenal suggested to give us Quality Street and American pancakes, offer us Dancing on Ice and smart-phones, offer us Christmas and a new year, offer the best a man can get, because you’re worth it…
I recall “All this I will give you… if you will bow down…”
When nature
overcomes our bread and circus…
I’m
off to read a chapter of Wilbur’s Vicious
Circle, with a small Grouse and a slice of Christmas
cake as Mr Wesseltoft lightens the mood. But I will try to be
mindful that “Man shall not live on…”
bread and circus alone.
Happy New Year!
Rather like the Holly ‘something’ lives on…
Going through the annual stages of the berry’s colours? Birth “white as the milk”, energetically vibrantly “green as the grass”, humanly physically “blood-red” and deeply deadly “black as the coal”…
What is ‘it’ I wonder, much more than a jingly crimbly festive cheer…
Long live the holly!
Now the holly bears a berry as white as the milk, And Mary bore Jesus all wrapped up in silk.
And Mary bore Jesus, a saviour for to be, And the first tree in the greenwood it was the holly
Holly, holly, And the first tree in the greenwood it was the holly
Now the holly bears a berry as green as the grass, And Mary she bore Jesus who died on a cross.
Now the holly bears a berry as blood it is red, And Mary bore Jesus who rose? from the dead.
Now the holly bears a berry as black as the coal, And Mary bore Jesus who died for us all.
Cornish chorus: forgive my ignorance but it’s sumt’ like this
Ha Mam o an Maghteth, Marya Mam Dew, Ha gwedhen an gwella, an gelynen yu
Kelyn, Kelyn, Ha gwedhen an gwella an gelynen yu.
Once upon a time…
Jules P Richards 