Learning Curve.

Learning Curve.

An extremely pleasing few days with one of my wife's stroke clubs, even if the verbal ride was a little bumpy at times. Once again I need to thank those of my faithful who took the time to follow my offerings, though this weekend is definitely down to easing back the throttle on the old noggin [ head ]. It must be tea time by now? my trouble must be up in bed with her tongue hanging out?

Obey the Rules, for Once.

Obey the Rules, for Once.

My first duty is to my lovely daughter-in -law. Never slow to help and is as usual going that extra mile to boost my efforts to stay in a positive frame of mind. What a God send such a helpmate it is to have in a fix and I am certainly in one now. Nevertheless, despite how I should be reading the runes it might appear to some, I feel great, not despondent, or depressed. The correct word is CHALLENGED.

And no this one is not kidding myself in the: ignorance is bliss mode, of looking at the world through 'rose tinted spectacles,' but based on almost seventy-seven years of life, love, struggle and monumental set backs and asinine errors that even a three year old would never be foolish enough to make. At last my life's purpose has, I believe, been revealed to me. This time I shall not, with God's help be thwarted from the realization of that goal.

It is certain, sure and been driven home to me even through my thick and impenetrable skull that: if I don't stick to the rules I have about six months to a year to live. That does not make for a very happy bunny but even happy bunnies have to wake up and stop expecting the world to make life too easy for them, for ever.
Now is the time for the RECKONING, as any God fearing moron will tell you there is always a time for a reckoning.

The question about reckonings is do you want them to be in this world? or the next? personally I prefer this, but then it is a democracy we live in, and one day the whole world will be such, once the odd blemish and odd ball has been shewn the light. By the way the impetus for this piece has been given in three ways. Interesting how the number three always seems to crop on my radar.

In chronological order they must be as follows.

When serving on board the HMS Diamond, a Daring Class ship returning early to its home base of Chatham, Kent, England , for refit, much to my consternation; Requestmen, had been called. There about to be, hoist by my own petard, was this little lad of almost eighteen summers: me.  The result of this charade, due to my immaturity was to be a humiliated laughing stock. I had solved my problem and disobeyed the correct procedure to do so. With a little more wit and maturity I might have triumphed but that was the Navy way in 1955.

The second indicator which has puzzled me until this very evening has been one that has puzzled far greater 'acknowledged' brains than mine over many years, even centuries, and had played a silent critic in my book case for a year or three, until one of my sons pulled it out on a visit and thumbed a few pages. However with all my other attempts: The Blind Watchmaker, was the key. This tome turned out to be the second convincing plank in the platform of erudition. The author had missed the point.

For nearly forty years it has an insistence even if only to me a a handful of wonderful people who have seen something in me that I have never seen in myself.  Now with the link placed with me now from Psalms 145,
as I read through this fantastic LINK, and see this Psalm 145, [623] is credited as David's Psalm of Praise.
Three days ago my brother Colin David, visited to heal the breach between us, most successfully. What better message could there be of support from the greatest support one might ever wish?

Of course that was not the point. It seems to me this is one point I shall have to labour. Until the human race, species, call it what you will, steps away from its obsession with a likeness of itself to God. It will never have the ability to evolve to the next logical stage of its development. By what law, gift or hand me down was it in the scriptures did God ever say, indicate or command that humanity should limit itself to imitate Him?

With all the superb advances and ingenuity produced in the twentieth century surely to God we can be worthy of His direction to expand and develop what he has already granted us, and with it such a fantastic expansion of the talents and abilities he has granted us. Instead of our typical bloody-mindedness over peanuts.

Just how short sighted does get when one sticks one's nose so far up one's anus it appears to be the vocal organ?

Perspective.

Perspective.

Have you noticed just how your perspective on; the scenery about you, your take of events personal, or casual commercial ones in your orbit, or your feelings over the latest exasperation with political changes and point scoring seem merely a cosy friendly way to give the impression of doing something to earn their crust?
Changes in perspective, a line of sight, a new view on matters, trivial or substantial require input for a new perception.

My new perspective naturally enough at the moment has become centred and focused upon my medical results expected next Tuesday mid-day. At that point there will be a report to inform me just what my immediate future may be looking toward. In the past few days it has been my approach to tasks to be as brief as possible then to rest for a period. For as long as possible then to rest for a period.

Well it appears that my interview with the consultant, is to be tomorrow afternoon. I have been given instructions to lay off the jokes, that I do not doubt. Though it often gets said, in the old homestead, that with the rise and rise of the PC kill joys, and their irritating lack of common sense it is a wonder that humour has not been extinguished. Having said that my lesson should have been learnt years ago. Having lost at least two jobs by out of place humour.

As the BBC among others have been promoting a fresh look at longevity and its desirability, or lack of it. This appears to me to be the moment I should considered setting out my own progress or lack of it in advancing my case for a much extended life span for the general population. My general picture of events goes something along these lines.

*                    *                   *                    *                    *                    *                   *                *

There was I cruising along not doing a great deal of harm to anyone, just ruing my mistake in signing up for the Andrew at the tender age of sixteen while my contemporaries were far more concerned with how they could maximize their chances of a degree course, and then dodging the compulsory National Service commitment in 1951, how times and attitudes change?

Well for those who like my dear departed mother see a pattern, form, and design in everything, after four years of virtually no discernible progress in the elevation of my career in the navy I was dumped with little thanks, or ceremony, in a scruffy double breasted brown suit and barely enough money to get home. Though my prospects seemed non-existent there was about me a totally unrealistic attitude that at last I was free. How wrong can you be?

The first thing I was to discover was that this was merely the next chapter in my personal odyssey. Sure my ambition was pretty gross but as I was gradually to find my first necessity was to get a source of income. As with many stuck at the bottom of the ladder with so many obligations and responsibilities it can be a wonder that anyone breaks through the barrier of achievement.

With our marriage and a youngster to feed, clothe, and shelter underlined just how ordinary I really was, a very ordinary tale of relentless pressure. Then the writing itch struck. Eighteen months, clashing with night school and work, my wife swore she would never put up with such again. As 'First Choice,' my novel of the adventures of three young boy seamen in their training, nose dived into the sea of hard luck tales, it seemed she would get her wish.

It was to take ten long years of grind, rebuff and rejection before the powers that be pressed down hard on my stupidity ............now I had reached the Golden Age of thirty seven, the age when men of a certain range of achievement suddenly achieve the strangest ideas. Why, where, how ? My only explanation is the moment when a searcher finds what he never knew or understood just what it was he was looking for, but now with a clarity given with the blessing that few receive now know the answer.

One small addendum needs to be added to that comment is that the blessing I have received to understand the answer and where it derived from has needed my life span to double to accept the conclusion of my original logic. Yes, the answer seems to centre on  seventy-four. I have had to double my original life-span to accept, develop and prove the task set out for me.

And to underline the irony of the whole issue.  There is a further modern labour of Hercules to be confronted, endured and defeated : cancer.

An Allegory ?

An Allegory ?

It is generally accepted to be in monumental bad taste to relate dreams but this one was so vivid and puzzling until I related it to my wife. She immediately said: It sounds like life. At the risk of boring the pants off everyone within reading distance it went along these lines.

There was I sitting in this bar in central London, perhaps near where I worked for a decade or two near Farringdon Station and Saint Bart's hospital and the former Smithfield market. You know how hazy dreams can be. Well the next thing I noticed was a large Bentley style limousine parked outside, blocking the narrow road, as it would in that area. On enquiry as to who it was waiting for? You. I was told.

The temptation to enter the plush vehicle and allow myself to be swallowed by a combination of its paraded delights. Not least the superb creature barely visible through the darkened smoked class of the limousine. Decades earlier and this might have presented a problem though I felt confident enough to doubt such. What sort of a test was this to present all temptations as a miss mash of choice?

Staggered yes. Confused yes. Where were all these desirable wish fantasies springing from? Surely not from my hidden frustrations or desires? What really got me thinking were the rather large gentlemen in the background to each and every cameo. The menace was overt and well presented, no possible room for misrepresentation. It was a pleasant surprise to wake up and discover, real as it had appeared it was a just a dazzling dream.

You can have anything you want in life as long as you can pay for it.

Top Emma enthusiastic.

Middle me: pensive.

Bottom image: Parading , Lewis.

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Going Through the Time Barrier.

Going Through the Time Barrier.

I now have to hand the second monthly edition of the English language version of : The Light Divine. After the editorial the next article deals with : Time Management : the Secret of Success. As usual the articles are laced with excellent advice and anecdotes. The downside, as ever, is the heavily weighted negative view on the progress humanity is making toward its own self destruction.

As is so often the case with views presented in an unbalanced way showing too much emphasis on one side or other of the argument the initial tendency is to accept almost uncritically the view heavily canvassed. It takes time to marshal the opposing or even the lightening values to add to the mix. This technique is often witnessed with Radio and TV programs, where an aggressive sound bite can be inserted, not leaving time for a riposte.

My own efforts to bring the ideas of the major religions and other sound and beneficial approaches to life, and its furtherance, for the good of all, seems now with the passage of so much time to have been a massive waste of time. That is if you accept the arguments and the pictures drawn by those looking to exploit the negative side of the equation.  So often I feel downcast myself that my original article was not the charismatic and explosive tract, it should have been.

Why not? Perhaps because my talents and presentation skills as a writer were not up to the standard necessary, to do justice to the theme. Then there is the view often advanced with great justification; that the time had not come for such revelation. Over the period of the past few months as I have felt my abilities and confidence as a writer with something worth saying increase, my salvation has been the internet.

Seeing how some of the blogs with followings of many thousands with some this sets the standard, but my efforts and interest is to grow my efforts with real value. Naturally I realize in even taking this tact with what is presented lays my efforts open to abuse, a negative in itself with the internet method of approach.

Those who see the Rio+20, Earth environmental climate Summit as the last chance saloon, do mother nature a disservice. Certainly the cards seem to be heavily stacked against her, but has divine retribution still have a card or two to play? One point should perhaps be made a little clearer, if required, is that the title,'Going through the Time Barrier,' refers not to a physical break through such a barrier, as the illusion of such due to the acceleration with the speed of change as people and nations, commerce and social interaction come together in a far more positive and co-operative than before.

The Abyss.

 
The Abyss.

Once the hurdle of unloading the new knowledge had been completed and a suitable distance evolved from the point of impact it might seem reasonable that any normal self respecting individual in a democratic society would start to count his fortune and wonder, if and when the recognition would begin. Naturally it was already appreciated that there was a difficulty with the aspect of acknowledgement and recognition.

These two, of perhaps the most satisfying of achievements, with the vast majority of the achievers of any nation under normal circumstances were met as the individual grew in status and passed through the many levels to the pinnacles of society, during their lifetime of productive working. Either by solid effort, invention, research, innovation , or by literary, artistic or social or political effort considered to be to the general good of the people.

Where though does the odd character fall into this pattern when his thoughts and knowledge create a rift so wide the author is unable to fully explain his quantum leap? Four decades have passed still the chaos is obvious,  but the strength of the old ways has been sufficient to put up a shield to defend the myths and insufficiencies of the status quo. Many of the establishment elite remain unconvinced of the effacy of the new knowledge.

Fortunately, unlike his detractors, the author of the new knowledge was in no real hurry to get involved in the day to day scrummage to prove out his theory as he was completely convinced time itself would unravel the conundrum, he had set, both to himself and to the world at large. Time and a massive team of human brains working together, and competitively apart, would produce a working understanding.

Almost as if sent by Creation itself: a new and soon to prove a vast communication driving force and motivator, the World Wide Web was born: The Internet. Timothy Berners-Lee, its founder, constructed the network as a tool to help himself and fellow scientists to keep in touch with each others work more efficiently than hitherto. This single innovation was within a decade or two to accelerate the rapid change spreading across the globe.

The media as the media so often do quickly hung a label round the neck of the new movements of revolt and revolution in various parts of the world as this or that ' spring, ' the word spring implied the birth of a new order and with it new hope that corrupt agencies would be swept away by the uncorrupted youthful revolutionaries. Unfortunately things are not that simple, too many tenuous links with an undefined strength nurtured by fear and horrors indelibly etched into the psyche by war.

The First Hurdle?

The First Hurdle?

All of us and that naturally enough this means everyone from the top of the tree down through the hundreds of grades, divisions and sub-divisions, right down to the very bottom of the heap, have heard or at least understand, once old enough to appreciate the facts of life, that you cannot take it with you. What is referred to in this case is perhaps a little more than appreciated under the old belief system. So let us examine belief.

Under the old belief extracted from the natural cycles of earth, fire, water, and air; then supplemented over the centuries, by rituals supported by the; cleverest, strongest and most persuasive of the population many ideas and fears grew up. So to answer these general questions of the people and to keep them orderly and submissive to the desires, wants and needs of the elite, an invisible barrier of understanding was created.

The invisible barrier of understanding was created after many centuries of trial and error, when it was finally conceded that each civilisation produced  its own success only to the point when they had created a society that gave them the power of gods. At this point the society became unstable and disintegrated due to total lack of basic humanity. With everyone a god nobody was prepared to concede to another.

With the world coming to terms with the aftermath of WW2, in the nineteen forties. It was understandable that even the major industrial and wealth creating countries had drained away a great deal of their resources. A new generation impatient with the old ways that had brought ruin twice in less than fifty years, allowing a change in the balance of power. Sage heads of Europe had a solution which was not endorsed by all.

One of the great and some would say over riding tenants of belief before the two world wars, in the twentieth century was that might was right, and if not, the politic way was to go along with the strongest power. Whether that was in the playground with the biggest bully, or later when the mature adult society kept more or less to the agreed framework of laws passed by the governing elite. There was a flaw though.

The big flaw with both the Greek and Roman societies was that each had to rely on a large slave population from which to draw much of its menial labour. The renewal of this supply of slave labour, had to be supplemented by war. This flaw, built in by the ancient acceptance of military dominance, merely served to endorse the natural order, observed in nature: might, speed, agility, cunning, dexterity, and team work.

Of course the almighty may have given mankind dominion over the animal kingdom, but it now seems patently obvious from many of the advances humanity has made in the past century or so, that was not meant to be the limit of the horizons that should challenge the creation of the almighty. Already the ingenuity, fertile imagination and the development of abstract manipulations allowing many advances in life extension cycle.

Essentially many believed with the end of W.W.2, two basic warring theories had been exhaustively analysed with the loss of many thousand of lives but many remained unconvinced. WW1 was held to be the swan-song of the monarchical system. WW2 being represented as a resulting clash of ideology, from a botched agreement in 1919-1920. WW2 ended in 1945. Peace though was still a far off dream.

The leading lights of the war, as politicians the world over, were keen to put their stamp on any agreements to be made and endorsed for the victorious aftermath of the world war. It soon became common knowledge that the efforts of the United Kingdom to save the day, were yesterday's news. The reluctance, as so often happens, for the defeated leader to retire gracefully from the scene soon began to tarnish matters.

It is an old saw but one that great and small alike, men and women, so often ignore: no one likes to be indebted to others. The debts that you cannot repay are the most difficult to manage with good grace. This was especially the case where the clash of the Treaty of Roman, came into existence, in January 1958, and immediately created a further raft of problems.

The offshore irritant, as one leading European politician put the case of the United Kingdom, had a new theory that might answer the problem facing them all. The main trouble was it required time to be thought through, developed and considered in depth. In any case the main problems were to manage the use and distribution of resources as they stood. Not introduce an esoteric solution that complicated matters.

The article: Going Through the Time Barrier, landed on the desk of the editor of the New Scientist publication. in 1973. Coupled with several other articles, it was easy for the recipients, to the various organs of public enlightenment, to reject and effectively dismiss unsupported arguments from an unknown untried intellect. A quick check had shown the author had been placed in a local psychiatric hospital: end of story.

Of course it was far from being the end of the story. While the author's offerings were being collected, collated and analysed the whole episode was placed under a D notice. A security device to stop any unauthorised leaks to the general public via the media. As matters then evolved over the next several weeks then months, this was the ideal solution to a very delicate problem. It gave everyone time.

Time was of the essence. Time to analyse. Time to assess. Time to reflect, and time to wonder. Naturally those on the periphery of the event initially saw it as some sort of lightening strike from the almighty. Fortunately the power and abilities of this writer, although untrained and unorthodox, in presentation and subject had already alerted the authorities to an intellect of unusual perspective and aspect of understanding.

This was not the first time this individual had come to the attention of the authorities, in 1953, and 1955, while serving in the Royal Navy his disturbing mental upheavals drew attention to himself and were quickly glossed over by the relevant authorities. These affairs were such as to make him look for a quiet unchallenging life on his discharge in late 1955. Slowly though his desire to write asserted itself.

During the early sixties, after a short story correspondence course, his impatience to complete his first novel based on his boy seaman naval training at Shotley reasserted itself and was completed. After its rejection, and only too well aware of its over emphasis on detail and generally not to a standard of which he was satisfied, the whole was placed out of harms way as he reflected on his next move.

That is how matters remained until his reawakening in mid December 1972. What triggered this upheaval and brain storm has not been satisfactorily recorded.The mental tremors lasted at gradually diminishing intervals until the early nineties: occurring in 1979, 1982, and 1992. With retirement in 2001, and time to use the Internet and start a blog. The idea surfaced to try to have another attempt to understand why.