Over Indulgence in Faery Land

Week Thirty – eight: Sunday 17 – Saturday 23 June

"Something tells me, I'm into something good" were the words from the song whose title I can't remember ("Woke-up this morning feeling fine, there's someone special on my mind. Last night I met a girl, and her name is Sue ...") that I found myself involuntarily singing over the weekend. I was floating around the 3 Wishes Faery Fest at Colliford Lake Park, Bodmin, Cornwall, with Toni, Kumali, my samba drumming mates, and a whole collection of other happy, positive, friendly and relaxed people.

Penrhythm, the name of the samba/reggae eclectic that I play with, were invited to the Fest to liven up the crowds on the Friday and Saturday with some primal, tribal beats, under the pseudonym of 'Goblin Drummers'. We rocked, as usual, thanks, as always, to the teaching, guidance and conductoring of our leader and inspiration Sarah Ballantine. Many people came up to us on the Sunday to tell us they thought we provided the best musical performance of the weekend. Not difficult, given some of the stuff was pretty torturous, but a compliment none the less. And we have been invited to play another festival on the back of our efforts.

In between rehearsals and performances we were free to take in the other bands and singers, and dance and jive along, indulge in the various treats and delights for sale, and being passed around, and generally wander about looking at the stalls, playing on the slides, communing with nature and chatting to lots and lots of relaxed, mellow people with welcome smiles and ready laughs aplenty.

I haven't indulged in the pleasures of camping for over ten years. It was the perfect environment for Kumali, free to run around with all the other little girls dressed as fairies, with painted faces, wings, wands and other appropriate apparel. It was a perfect environment for Toni too, a woman who doesn't do words, who does atmosphere, because the ambiance all weekend was never less than warm, loving and open. And it was, of course, a perfect environment for me as well, because I am, I have come to learn, nothing more than a pagan, pixie, goblin, naturist.

The lovely and talented Frea, who is also on the writing course, was there with her equally lovely and talented partner, Andy, and various members of Frea's various families were also there, meaning I got to meet some of her wonderful family: dad, Jack; step-mum, Mary (who beautifully painted Kumali and my faces with butterfly designs); brothers Ja (who made a fantastic veggie curry) and Jimmy; and little sister, the inimitable Flora.

Frea, who is usually a relatively upbeat and positive person, spent six years living in Glastonbury so her tolerance for all the more powder puffy side shows that were going on at every turn was low, and, at times, her cynicism was palpable. On the Saturday I was all for staying for a month. When I mentioned the fact, Frea's eyes automatically rolled upwards, trying to touch her eyebrows, which were also raised, then, just as quickly, the expression was gone, she smiled, shook her head and was off, with her jaunty, unique gait taking her to the bar.

By the Sunday night, and a whole day of listening to well intentioned, but grossly deluded and awfully self-indulgent, bands as the rain drizzled down, I was ready to leave. I wandered round all the many faces I had struck up a rapore with, instantly bonded with, shared laughs and stories with, and said my goodbyes. Very genuine and lovely people, never met a bad 'un in three days. Faery land is a fabulous place to go ... but just maybe not permanently!

http://www.3wishesfaeryfest.co.uk/

Quote of the Week # 33

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

Albert Einstein

Einstein A Go Go

Week Thirty – seven: Sunday 10 – Saturday 16 June

A friend, lovable, reliable Larry, had been down visiting from Scotland. He also had a Catholic upbringing, and the conversation turned to God and religion at one point. Not, I hope, because we are hung up and forever damned by our inculcation from birth till rebellious teen hood. No, while there are some shackles of Catholicism we may never shake free of - are there many/any Catholic reared men who can masturbate with a complete lack of guilt? - this conversation revolved around a newspaper article.

The newspaper article revolved around excerpts from the diaries of Albert Einstein, giving an insight into how he felt about God and religion. These are some of the things he had to say.

Asked at a dinner party (don't know if that is relevant) whether he was religious, he replied: "Yes, you can call it that. Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious."

On another occasion, asked whether or not he believed in God, he said: "I am not an atheist. I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved in the question is too vast for our limited minds...That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being towards God. We see the universe marvellously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws."

He composed a personal creed at one point, its main tenet being: "The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder or stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man."

He gave atheists a harder time than he gave believers, on the basis that: "What separates me from most so-called-atheists is a feeling of utter humility towards the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos."

So say all of us. Amen.

Summer Lovin

Week Thirty – six: Sunday 3 – Saturday 9 June

What a week ... of beautiful weather. Classic summer days: bright, piercing, blue skies and blazing, bathing, sun. Life always feels, and is, so much better when it is warm and sunny.

I've a restless spirit, if not soul, and haven't laid down real roots anywhere over the last decade or more. Thoughts have filtered through my mind, on and off, over the last few months under the the theme of 'where next.' A few, glorious, hours spent on Gyllyingvase Beach last week with my wife and daughter, watching Kumali revel in, and with, the sea and amuse herself endlessly with, and in, the sand, acted as a clear, calm, comforting epiphany.

Falmouth specifically, Cornwall generally, isn't just as good a place as any to live, it's as good as, and a lot better than, most. And for a youngster, it offers a delightful privilege to grow with a readily available, always tangible, connection to a rugged and more raw natural environment.

Yes, it rains a lot in winter, but that's helps to make it green and lush in spring and summer. It's a trade off. It can be chilly, too, but it never gets overly cold. Yet in the summer, when the sky is clear and blue and the sun is hot and strong, the lesser weather days are distant memories. That's a more than favourable trade off.

Standing at the waters edge, working up the courage to dive in before lock-forward Joe Weir rugby tackled me in again, I watched Kumali so blissfully happy to be by the sea-side. At the same time a group of fifteen, or more, young teenage boys and girls came rushing into the water. It looked like a regular after school activity. It looked like they were all having a great time. Beats sitting on a park bench, or in front of msn, I guess.

It looks like it makes sense for Toni, Kumali and little old restless me to think about going nowhere else, for the time being anyway.

If You Do Nothing Else # 3

Watch ...

Before Sunrise, and the sequel Before Sunset.

Little plot, little action, little drama: lots of class. Two quality films.

If You Do Nothing Else # 2

Watch this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzOV7DIgUaA

Quote of the Week # 32

The earth provides enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed.

Mahatma Gandhi

Green Means Stop

Week Thirty – five: Sunday 27 May – Saturday 2 June

Planet earth is warming up. Depending on who you listen to and/or what you choose to believe, the human race is either solely responsible or nothing to do with it all. Well, what do I know? Not much, and that lessens every time I learn some more; the more I know the more I know there is to know.

One thing I am fairly sure of is that the numbers of humans on planet earth has quadrupled, from roughly one and a half billion to six billion, in around 250 years. That's four times as many people generating heat. Add to that the fact that a hefty percentage of us now generate far more heat than humans ever have before and it is hard to escape the fact that the human race is contributing heavily to the rising temperatures.

Who wants to slow down? Lots of people, it appears. But who wants to give up the cars, the central heating, the factory manufactured goods, the availability of goods from around the world, the air travel, the electrical gadgets, et cetera? Few, if any.

So what's going to happen? Again, what do I know? But as more land is concreted over, as more of the earth's natural habitat is removed, as more other living species disappear, as more and more people desire the capitalist dream, hasn't something got to give sometime?

And what is the return for what is perceived as increased prosperity? Does more and more money and consumer goods make you any happier? Are people more, or less, depressed than in times gone by? Are people more, or less, dysfunctional than in times gone by?

There is an uneasy feeling in the western world that all is not what we say it is; we have become prisoners of the money myth. Charles Handy, the world renowned management guru, said that, not me. And he said it ten years ago. Are we getting more deeply imprisoned, or are we freer? A constant theme of D.H Lawrence's novels was the way in which the hard, mechanistic world of the industrial west was sucking the life out of the human race. Are we just having it sucked out of us even faster, or is less being sucked out of us?

Whether we are damaging the planet or not, is the life that exists for most of us really the life we would choose to lead? Slow down, you move too fast, got to make the morning last. So said Simon and Garfunkel.

A friend of mine has been a taxi driver in Edinburgh for over 25 years. He's a friendly guy who loves to chat to his passengers. Over the last few years, he tells me, he hears more and more from professionals that he collects from airports, train stations, hotels, et cetera, about how unhappy they are with their jobs. The pressures, the hours, the demands, the stress, the constant travel. They want simpler lives. But they're on the gravy train, in the rat race, on the hamsters wheel, and they're afraid to get off or out. Their salaries and perks are great, on paper. But when you work out the hours they are forced to work, it doesn't look so great.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I think we need some balance.