Archive for September, 2022

Does Our Government Want Many of Us to Die?

If you want to bore yourself silly, read about “No Blame Culture’ in business. It is the most turgid rubbish I have read in a long time. But philosophy in business is about the most tragic and dreary thing one could possibly read… If you want to think about something astonishing look at what the Tao says about blame… things like ‘No fight, no blame’ and ‘if you blame someone else, there will be no end to the blame.’

We really do not need to blame. We just need the truth.

There’s a lot of blame around: after 12 years in power the Tories blame Labour for the economic crisis, and the fat hedge-fund manager blames ‘remainers’ for the fall of the pound, and the Russians blame the west for the sabotaging of their own pipelines. The Americans blame everybody for everything, because that is part of their obsessively litigious culture. 

My rational mind says there is no space and no place for blame, but my body, which is very cold right now says somebody out there should be blamed… and maybe made aware that so many of us are fearful of turning up the heat – as if we have no right to be warm, to be alive or to buy food and eat, even though we have been law abiding citizens and paid taxes all our lives.  

In the last two days, several people have suggested to me that this government want many of us to die… sooner rather than later. So maybe there is somebody out there to blame. Whether there is somebody to blame… rest assured… Liz Truss and her Government  would not know compassion or empathy if it came up and poked them in the eye with a pointed stick.

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Service… The Queen’s Super-Powered Legacy

The Queen will be remembered with affection by zillions of people, even those that err on the side of republicanism… she’s a blazing beacon to the beauty and power of service… in the right place at the right time.

Queen Elizabeth II

The late and great Queen Elizabeth was born in an era when service was rewarded and appreciated, thanks to the corresponding efforts of trade unions and social reformers. She set out on her path to serve unequivocally as Queen in the early 1950s, and others resonated with her work ethic. It was an era when postmen weren’t paid much, but felt valued for their work – like nurses, doctors, plumbers and ambulance drivers. It seemed that people had a real sense of their own worth and role in service, even if the state was a touch mean. Then Margaret Thatcher came along, and said “anyone on a bus over the age of 25 is a failure” and the ethos of self-worth drifted away on the breeze, and was duly replaced by the ethics of greed. No wonder Queen Elizabeth disliked Thatcher so much. And yet Thatcher was addicted to service, self-service – like Trump and Boris Johnson – not service to the good of others. And there we have it… service… real service has to be for the benefit of others and at best done with love. And knowing this, many understandably loved our late Queen, and others respected her, which is similar in a way.

I once visited a nursing home with my MP – Caroline Lucas. A cheeky nurse looked Caroline in the eye, as if to challenge her and said “So why did you become an MP then?” to which Caroline replied almost dreamily – “I did it because I wanted to make a difference.” 

And for your delight and mine… here are some great service quotes:

 “Everyone can be great because everyone can serve…” – Martin Luther King

“The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.” Albert Einstein

“Life is a place of service, and in that service one has to suffer a great deal that is hard to bear, but more often to experience a great deal of joy. But that joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.” Leo Tolstoy

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The Matriarch: Funeral reading for Queen Elizabeth

The most popular reading I have ever written is entitled The Matriarch. I wrote it some years ago, and people have requested it under the most unexpected circumstances. It is about matriarchal power and the importance of soul groups, which always intrigues me… because it is most often used by those who openly request secular readings.

This is a version I adjusted in tribute to the late and great Queen Elizabeth II; it appeared recently in an on-line publication. If you would like to read the original, just click on this link in Funeral Readings.

The Matriarch

Time is an illusion
It takes and it gives
All of us
Are travellers
On an endless and sacred 
Journey of our making

The voyage of this companion
We remember this day
Because it was long and rich
Warm and bright
Sometimes sunny
Sometimes sad
For memories
Are the children
Of a long life

The voyage of this companion
Was colourful and complete
She was mother
Grandmother
And great grandmother
And so much more

She gave life
She gave love
And she gave friendship
And so much more
This great family
Gathered here and beyond
Would be nothing without her
Without her some of us
Would be less
Than a passing dream
Which is why we honour her spirit
Her love
Her knowledge
And her wisdom

Our journey
Yours and mine
Will never end
It may divert
And for a while
We may lose 
Fellow travellers
Just for a moment
A blink in time
But we will always travel
With soul companions
Within and beyond our own sphere

We, her people, her children
Her grandchildren
Great grandchildren
And her friends
Known and unknown
Now understand
Her power
Her love

And so we thank her
And those that created her

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