Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Tuesday 11th September 2001 23-30 CET
World Trade Centre/Pentagon Violence
"Poverty is the greatest form of violence" stated Mohandas K Gandhi.
This is most certainly true, for poverty inflicts pain in so many ways.

But violence is not a question of degree...violence is violence and
demands from us a response which, in our human experiencing condition
cannot always be one of expressing lovingness...though there have
been many...great and small..who in this past century have done
just that.

So we look into a shattered World Trade centre dustcloud. We
contemplate the terror aboard those hijacked civil airlines
whose passengers and crew were mercilessly sacrificed to some,
as yet, unknown 'principle of justification'. Oh, that the world might
be saved from such principles and justifications that carry within
them all that speaks against the sanctity of human life.

In these horrendous circumstances it is hard to 'find a blessing'.

I sometimes visit the websites of young 'anti-social/punk orientated' people
in the USA. I have heard the revolt against authority, the cynicism
expressed against social morals and values and the empasised hyprocrisy
of older generations. I see the disrepect verbalised against the world..and
read of the apparent lack of individual responsibility and respect.

A 15 year old of this 'category' writes in this way. Having heard of
the appalling scenario unfolding in America today, his response..his
immediate response..was " I am going down to give blood."

The price of freedom is individual responsibility. In such circumstances
as these we all have the potential for 'being a source of blessings'.
God Bless you Tonio!!!!

"A true disciple feels another's pain as his own" sang Gandhi as a child.
I am not certain if I qualify as a 'disciple', but I am weeping inside for the
pain of all those families, friends, schoolpals......who have lost a loved one
this terrible, inhuman, unimaginably unkind day.

Monday, September 10, 2001

Monday 10th September 2001 11-40 CET
So today I continue the carpentry work I started yesterday, I am renovating and
restyling the middle room upstairs. It continues to rain and I hear the melody of it
playing upon the roof as I work. Crescendoes and gentler passages, it is as though
fingers are playing a 'pastoral' upon some gigantic nature piano. Playing with
strength and also with sensitivity.
The harmony of the sounds and the interplay of lighting effects are truly an
incredible sequence of experiences.
So is life in this 'reality', huh?
Sunday 10th September 2001 20-50 CET
The South African group Ladysmith Black Mombazo, one of the groups
on the Paul Simon 'Gracelands' CD...and I understand Nelson Mandela's
favourite group..... have a beautifully melodic song "Rain rain beautiful
rain". The song, amongst other things, emphasises the value of rain
in a hot, dry land.
They would have loved it here today. The 'Swedish Autumn Monsoon' hit
with full force, coming so heavy the rainwater gutters for the roof could not
cope and mini-waterfalls cascaded down the side of the building - this was
doubtless helped by the abundance of leaves that had gathered in them . So
I got drenched clearing out leaves - but even then the gutters still overflowed!
It was.....hmmm...magnificent :)
We often think it inconvenient, but I wonder where all the forests would bem
where all the berries (blueberry amongst them) would be, where would the lakes
be...if we didn't have this continuing supply of water?

Of course, we (mankind that is) would probably like to reach a point of being
able to control all these things (we seem to think we are clever enough for that)
and that we could turn on rain like a garden sprinkler. I wonder if we are sufficiently
sensitive to the needs of nature to ever be able to do this with any degree of
success.

Maybe it would simply be better if we adapted to the wisdom of nature, helping
for example to channel water to arid areas of the world (creating new micro-climates)
and improving the conditions for so very many human beings. Alas, as yet, we
have not reached a point of accepting even the importance of this - though we have
the technology for it, we lack the will to do it..

Nature, however, continues to provide some form of balance...even if we don't
quite understand the rational.
"Rain rain beautiful rain' simply demonstrates the principle - that it depends where we
stand as to how we view.