Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man…living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you and he needs money. – George Carlin

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This is not surprising as childish behaviour in adults is seen perhaps as the lowest form of humor, or as a weakness or something to belittle.  We do not respect the child in our selves so how can we truly respect our children and their childhood.  Oh yes we throw up legal protection and talk about safeguarding children, but his is not from a love of childhood but a fear of ourselves.

We appear to save the children, and on the other hand present them with opportunities to abandon their child hood as quickly as they can.  That cant be so I hear you cry, but if the top games on the X box are: Grand Theft Auto, Halo and various Star Wars battle adventures, then these are not childish play but presentations of cold unfeeling violence, theft, hatred, and any other vice you care to name.  It is as subtle a brainwashing as the way “problems” in maths were presented in early twentieth century text books that belittled people of non european racial backgrounds or others in the lower socio economic order.

Its bothe girls and boys who are presented with early sexualisation , a drive for personal gratification and the subtleties of the pursuit of violence.  My 13 year old son would deny all this and says it doesn’t effect him.  Not consciously but what of the unconscious.

What of my daughters, whose mothers and grandmothers struggled to create a more equitable place in the world for them and where by the age of 13 that place is being offered in a totally remolded form.

We need to re respect children and  childhood, , we need to know it and understand it in ourselves, my worry is for many of us it was so traumatic we are trying to remove it everywhere we find it. There is so much more to say on this subject.

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1. Childhood Memories of Christmas
2. Childhood and behaviour
3. Away on the North East Coast

Ona sunny day as it was today, and without site of Pylon or machine it appears as a Rural Idyll, the flat grazing land covered in sheep and the steep escarpment rising to an ancient topping. As the train moves on the land flattens out further and i guess we were looking across the sussex weald. I doubt little has changed on this landscape for hundreds of years and something of its ancient feel where the sunlight glazed it and the sheep and horses grazed it seeped through the windows of the smooth air conditioned electric train.

“On Foot on the East Sussex Downs: 18 Short, Medium and Long Walks Near Brighton, Eastbourne and Lewes” (Ben Perkins)

The train sped on and we lost this rural retreat as we met the shabby sprawl that has become eastbourne and walked tot eh Towner art Gallery. A Gallery that has lost much of its charm, as it somehow seems both out of place and unfinished, unclear and undirected, with its tiny shop (compare it to the one in Brighton Library, never mind the one in Brighton Museum and Gallery) and wanting us to pay to go to an exhibition that it was hard to know might be worthwhile to see. This is not the Towner I remember. It has somehow lost its soul.

There art of the General collection is good and as a start for children it is worth the trip, but there was more art in those first flat fields of sheep as we left Lewes, but then perhaps there always is and Mount Caburn could never lost its soul.

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Exchange is the new way forward, its a way of sharing, learning and getting what you need without being sucked further toward a financial problem, you might be surprised how many people borrow to go on holiday.

Simply House Swap changes all that, allowing you to safely and securely swap houses for a UK holiday. To keep it simple its just in the UK and its also a specialist site aimed at the slightly more established surfer who is going to have a beautiful house. But for those who love walking, nature, The National Trust and might want a few days to a few weeks break I think it looks to be a good idea. Imagine swapping your home in Hampshire for a Yorksire Moors cottage or that Hebridean Croft for a swish London Appartment. I suggest registering your own place and seeing what comes your way. Take the high road!

“Life swap: The essential guide to downshifting” (Jo Hampson, Georgina Perkins)

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Sometimes we seek out others like us, who think like us, work like us and see the world like us.  Its natural and we call them clubs, societies, gangs, friends and so on.  At the same time its easy to start into attacking or opposing those that aren’t like us, or dont want to do it like us.

The world would be so tedious if we all thought and did the same.

Its through this negativity that conflict and hatred is allowed to flourish.  If you cannot think that maybe you might be wrong then you’re probably creating a difficult path for yourself.

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1. Ordinary Stupidity

I have to say I felt a bit cruel/guilty when I first swapped them over, but it saves on the fears and tears and keeps a little girl very happy.

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log maker

I have two wood burning fires, one is an open fire and the other a wood burning stove. The cost of wood fuel that hasn’t risen in years suddenly rose by an extra £10 per cubic metre. This is because demand has increased as fossil fuels and electricity have rocketed in price.

I would like the small open fire in my sitting room to be a wood burning stove, but the cost is prohibitive as I must get the chimney lined and for a small wood burner and the lining I would pay around £1300. I think I might also get a small grant for this, but am not sure.

I dont really understand how anything can be ‘carbon neutral’ so is burning wood ok or just the lesser of a number of evils, or not even that.

To be Carbon Neutral is supposedly to balance the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by a particular activity, like flying, driving or operating a data center, with an equal amount of carbon sequestration or carbon offsets from a third party. To be considered carbon neutral, an individual or organization must reduce its carbon footprint to zero. (CarbonNeutral.com) However it may also seem that carbon neutral is a marketing term used to entice consumers with guilty consciences. Carbon neutral claims are a form of subsidizing efficiency programs that are usually good projects, but do not capture and neutralize the carbon emitted by the original polluting activity supposedly being mitigated. Burning fossil fuels do not become “climate neutral” because the person who burned the fuel pays to subsidize installation of photovoltaic panels or other equipment in another location. Carbon neutral would be true if usage of carbon-based fuels was offset by capturing of an equivalent amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Most carbon neutral policies displace increases in combustion of carbon fuels but that merely slows the increase of atmospheric carbon -which is not “neutral”-. (permatopia.com)

I remember once having one of those gadgets that compress wet paper and make paper bricks you can burn, much like the one below. But is it worth it, how well do they really burn and how much toxic crap is in the waste paper in inks and glues and glosses that is released into the atmosphere as it burns. Is it really so ecological. I am, beginning to see how eco is just a marketing ploy. Yet I think I will get one.

“eko-mania Heavy Duty Paper Log Maker – Green” (eko-mania)

I enjoy building up the fire and getting it going and not having to heat the whole house with the central heating just coz i am cold in one room. I have also an ‘eco’ boiler as the old one broke, well worth the outlay as it has halved the gas bill.

The question I am really asking is any of this ecological or just a ruse to make us buy more stuff

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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.

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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.

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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

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