When I saw this window, the first thing I thought was, how beautiful. Look at the colours, the textures, the range and diversity. You can tell this is very old, and, most probably fashioned by hand. It is SO interesting. It caught my attention, stopped me, and drew me in to contemplate it for several minutes.
It doesn’t just let the light into the room, it filters and shades the light, creating what is nothing short of a dynamic artwork, changing minute by minute as the sun moves across the sky.
What it doesn’t do is let you see what is outside.
So, if you think the point of a window is to let you see what is outside, then you wouldn’t see the point of this window.
The creator of this window probably thought letting light into the room, and creating an object of true beauty while it did that, was sufficient. After all, if the main purpose was to let you see what was outside, you’d have selected plain, transparent, colourless glass, wouldn’t you?
I can’t help think, when I walk around any old town in France, that we’ve moved way, way too far down the path of mere utility. I can’t remember the last time I saw a mid 20th century tower block being blown up, and thinking, oh what a shame, what a loss…… Who mourns the passing of concrete (or, worse, “RAC”?)
There are still brilliant designers, artists and craftsmen and women. I just wish we directed more resources towards them, and less towards the get rich quick, throw up a cheap, poor quality building and pocket the profits types.
One day I was walking in a forest and I came across these rocks. At least I thought they were rocks. They look more like tree trunks than rocks. They look more like water flowing in the river. They look like an elephant.
There are patterns that appear in a huge variety of forms and materials in the world. The Chinese use a concept of “Li” to describe these underlying patterns which manifest through whatever appears to our eyes.
I think when you see something like this you are instantly aware of the interconnectedness of everything. The sense of a world made up of separate objects disappears.
Since emigrating to France from Scotland I have the opportunity to eat outside A LOT more often.
Whether it’s having breakfast, a coffee, lunch, or “apero”, in my garden, or having a meal, or a drink at a cafe, bistro or restaurant « en terrasse » , the climate here just allows that to happen through most of the year.
There’s loads of advice about what constitutes “a good diet”, or “a healthy diet”, but until I came across some articles in French, I didn’t think much about the importance of the non-food aspects of “healthy eating”.
Where you eat influences your experience of eating. There’s something “extra” about being able to eat outside, whether that’s in natural surroundings, like the garden, or gazing out over the ocean or a lake, or in town, “people watching”. It adds to your enjoyment, so influences your emotions, the healthy chemicals in your blood, your heart rate, and even your immune system.
Who you share your food and drink with is important too. The « apero » is an especially social activity, often sharing a board or two of cheeses and charcuterie, accompanied by a beer or a glass of wine. It’s a family event, an event shared with neighbours and/or friends, and it’s more about the people than the food and drink.
The social aspect of eating and drinking is hugely important and takes food well beyond mere “nutrients” or “fuel”.
I love this more holistic way to think about “healthy eating”. It’s not that the food isn’t important. It is. But it’s “and not or”…..the environment and the relationships around the table are also important.
There’s something else which contributes to healthy, enjoyable eating, and that’s the power of food to evoke memories. Whether it’s Proust with his Madeleines, or the dish your mum used to make, or the meal you shared with a loved one, the particular dish can help you relive great moments, and strengthen your relationships.
William Blake said we can see a world in a grain of sand, so how much world could we see in this one stone?
It was lying on a beach and from the lichen and/or seaweed growing on its surface, it’s clearly been there a long time.
And look at the layers within in the stone. Almost like the rings of a tree…laid down, accumulated, accreted, over decades, centuries even.
What’s the origin story of this one stone? How far has it traveled? How long has it lain on this particular beach?
I’m pretty sure there will be other life within the plant life there…maybe insects, bacteria, viruses….a whole ecosystem of Life.
And without trying to anthropomorphise too much, what stories could this stone tell us, if only it could? What has experienced? How has it changed in response to the events which have occurred around it within the timescale of its own existence?
And what about us?
How have events changed and shaped us? How have we cocreated our unique reality? What stories do we have to tell?
I spent my working life, one to one, with patient after patient, helping them to tell their stories, so that, together we could make sense of their experience. Time and again, they amazed me, they moved me, they intrigued me.
You can indeed see a world in a grain of sand, a whole world in one stone on the beach, a universe in the heart and mind of another.
This sea holly caught my eye. Not only is it beautiful, and isn’t beauty one of the most fundamental and important creative attractors in our lives? But it also got me reflecting on the apparent paradox of attraction and repulsion.
The beauty of the plant, its colour and its form, attracts. It draws us to it. It draws pollinators to it too! But the pointed leaves act like thorns and if you get too close they’ll prick your skin. They keep predators at bay too!
We, and by “we”, I mean we living organisms, need both. We need good defences to protect us from harm, to keep others at a distance. But we also need to connect, to call to others, to attract attention and bring others closer.
Around the world we are seeing a rise in Right Wing politicians with a specific focus on the issue of immigration. Country after country is either reinforcing its borders, or planning to do so. The criteria for authorised immigration are getting tighter and more expensive and the rhetoric against those escaping war, torture, poverty or hunger is becoming more severe. Underpinning all this is a negative stance towards “foreigners” who are blamed for housing shortages, low wages, difficult access to health care, pressures on schools and crime. The answers to these supposed effects include closing borders to new migrants, rounding up unauthorised migrants and deporting them, and even “re-migration” (expelling those with a legitimate right to remain in the country).
We could look at the facts and try to discover if any or all of these negative effects can indeed be laid at the doors of immigrants, but, frankly, many have already done so, and none of these claims stand up to scrutiny.
But, let’s take another approach. Let’s think about where we place borders and how we control them.
In the Middle Ages many cities in Europe built fortified walls around themselves. The gates into the cities were guarded by armed men and nobody could move freely into and out of the city.
Then as nation states arose those walls came down, either literally, or functionally. The borders were re-drawn around the new nations.
If you are at all interested in old maps, it’s easy to see that the current “national” borders, have, in many cases, been in existence for only a few decades, and that many have been drawn and re-drawn repeatedly.
But let’s do a thought exercise. What if we were to recreate, if not the actual walls, the borders around cities? What if, for example, we stopped people moving from one part of a country to another part? After all, the arguments against migration from one country to another are mainly down to strains placed on existing services, such as housing, health care and education, on the places to which the migrants move. So, if the problem is people moving into a particular city, or, even area of a city, and the answer is to stop them, why prevent only those coming from other countries? Why not stop those people coming from other cities in the same country?
China does this. There was a recent report about taxi drivers in Shanghai, many of whom are “migrant workers” whose homes and families are hundreds of miles away (but still in China). These workers have a right to work in Shanghai, live in dormitories together, but have no right to bring their families with them, and no right to health care within Shanghai.
How does that sound?
Would you like your country to function like that, controlling the movement of people within the country to stop “locals” in one city from being “invaded” by “hordes” from other cities, or from the countryside?
The rising tide of anti-foreigner speech, and actions, in populations and amongst politicians, is a return to the Middle Ages. Haven’t we developed since then? Haven’t we learned, since then, to identify with other humans who happen to live further away from us?
Xenophobia is a political weapon. Migration is not a “legitimate concern”. The issue is how a country uses and directs its resources. If there is a deficit somewhere, then the answer is to address that deficit, not take away freedoms, or stoke fear and hatred of “the other”.
It makes no more sense to try to control movement over national borders than it does to control movement within them. Setting one part of the population against another is a device to keep the privileged, privileged, to keep the elite, elite, to keep the wealthy, wealthy.
We have greater wealth in our countries now than we ever have, but we’ve developed an economic/political system which funnels most of it into the hands of a tiny minority. It’s only the richest who are substantially increasing their wealth over the last fifty years. That’s untenable. But it’s not an issue caused by migration, or insufficient control of borders.
And, for those who say that free movement over borders would be a nightmare, why isn’t it a nightmare to allow free movement within them?
I welcome constructive criticism and suggestions. I will not, however, tolerate abuse, rudeness or negativity, whether it is directed at me or other people. It has no place here. ANYONE making nasty comments will be banned.
Heroes Not Zombies 