Posts from — August 2006

It’s strange to cry over a novel in the early hours of the morning, but that’s what I did when reading Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven. This is what the blurb on the back cover says:

“All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time…”

On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies in a tragic accident trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his - and then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers, Yet each of them changed your path forever.

What got me crying? It was the part of the story where Eddie meets his wife Marguerite. She died before him and she’s one of the five people he meets in heaven, one of the five people who explains his life to him.

Even in his worst moments, Eddie had never stopped loving Marguerite, nor she him. And she’s young again when they meet in heaven. He’d felt his loss every day of his life after she’d died, and all he wants to do is to be reunited with Marguerite.

They review what they’d had togetherand what they’d missed. They’d not been able to have a longed-for child because she’d been severely injured when her car swerved into the central barrier of the highway when a bottle dropped by drunken teenagers from an overbridge had shattered the windscreen. She’d been on a mission of love to rescue Eddie on his birthday from a racetrack where he was gambling away the money they’d been saving to have the child.

Their love had faltered, but it had never disappeared. And it revived as they grew older together. Eddie was desolate and lonely when she died, and to meet her again in heaven is his heart’s desire.

Well, that part of the story triggered thoughts and feelings about my [tag[love[/tag] for Erica and our lives together, what we’ve had together and what we’ve missed. In fact, we were talking this morning at breakfast about one relocation we both felt had been wrong - for ourselves and our children. If we could wind the clock back, and knowing what we know no, we wouldn’t do that again.

But that’s the rub, isn’t it? We do what we do, we make the decisions we make, without fully being able to foresee the consequences.

What really made me cry, though, was the fear of loss. How could I live if I lost the one who is closest to me, who knows me best, of whose love I have absolutely no doubt?

Albom’s book is written in a straightforward prose, no flowery language, and the characters are not particularly exalted or noble. But he writes about profound things, life, death, things that are matters of the human spirit.

It’s worth reading.

Technorati Tags: Mitch Albom, Heaven, life, death

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Saturday 26 August, 2006 Spring is coming earlier, autumn is coming later - at least, it is in Europe, according media reports yesterday. There’s good science to demonstrate this beyond a peradventure. So why am I looking out at a cloudy sky on a cool, grey day, with rain? In August!

This montage of images taken by the Voyager spacecraft of the planets and four of Jupiter’s moons is set against a false-color Rosette Nebula with Earth’s moon in the foreground.

I love this montage picture of the Solar System from NASA.

Technorati Tags: Voyager, planets, Jupiter, Rosette Nebula, moon, Solar System

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Various people have written to me about pacing when using a mobile phone (or cellphone). For example, daughter-in-law Vicky has just written to say (Tom is my son):

I would just like you to know that Tom is currently on the phone on
his mobile and he is pacing (well he was, he is restin,…) and now
he is off again!!!!!

I never pace when I am on my mobile - I find a nice comfy nest to sit
in!! So I would say it is definitely a ‘man thing’ - Tom assures me
that men think better on their feet!

I was using my mobile at King’s Cross station yesterday (while waiting for the best part of an hour for train services to start up again after they’d been suspended on account of a suicide on the tracks north of Potters Bar). And I was trying very hard to stand still. I did succeed, but my feet wanted to carry me around the station concourse.

Oh well, it’s possible for me to be still, provided I remain mindful.

Technorati Tags: mobile phone, cellphone

Thanks to 43 Folders for this quote from Pope Benedict XVI:

During his traditional weekly appearance to bless the faithful, Benedict XVI quoted from writings of St Bernard in the 12th century meant for popes of his time on the subject of overwork.

The saint advised pontiffs to ?watch out for the dangers of an excessive activity, whatever? the job that you hold, because many jobs often lead to the ?hardening of the heart?, as well as ?suffering of the spirit, loss of intelligence?,? Benedict said, quoting St Bernard.

Good advice!

Slow Leadership also has related stuff.

Technorati Tags: Pope, Benedict, overwork, Leadership

OK, this has been sitting in amongst my bookmarks for ages. I’ve just been syncing my MacBook Pro with my smaller PowerBook prior to a trip; I found the link and paid a brief visit to the site.

Global Mindshift

The site claims:

Global MindShift is a non-profit organization that promotes an expanded view of what it means to be human based on the knowledge of our evolutionary journey.

We may be a lot like you: We lead comfortable lives, but when we look at the world as a whole we’re concerned by what we see… especially when we think about the world our children will inherit. So we asked ourselves, how can we contribute to a positive future?
For answers, we turned to experts from a wide variety of disciplines. We asked, “What do you believe is the root cause of today’s challenges?” We heard a common response: the problem is our worldview. The way we see the world and our place within it is no longer working.

What’s needed is a global mind shift… A new worldview that can help us see today’s problems in a larger context, and give us new, creative ideas about how to solve them.

I haven’t worked my way through the site yet, but what I’ve seen leads me think that we can learn a lot from it - and it will be useful for Baha’is who want to correlate science and religion.

You really need broadband to watch the fascinating video segments.

Technorati Tags: Global Mindshift, evolution, worldview, Baha’i, science and religion

Erica and I hosted our first Nineteen Day Feast last night at our home in Welwyn since we moved here in February.

The Nineteen Day Feast is the foundation of Baha’i community life, a time when we say prayers together, consult about the affairs of the community, and then have a wonderful social period. It’s a time to refresh ourselves spiritually, to strengthen the bonds of fellowship and friendship, and to think about where are going as a community.

One of the challenges we face is how to meet new people who might be interested to learn about the healing message of Baha’u'llah. We really want to increase our community of interest. To get the ideas flowing, we each took a bunch of Post-It notes and we all had to write down as many ways as we could dream up (making no judgement about whether they were good or bad ideas) of meeting new people - one idea per Post-It.

Then we went round and each of us read out one of our ideas and stuck the note to the piano. (We tried a cork board, but the notes wouldn’t stick. Actually they wouldn’t stick to the piano either.)

We had a flood of ideas. We thought the inter-faith boxing match might not have quite the desired effect, but Aref, our Local Assembly secretary, took all the Post-Its home and is going to type them up into a list that the Local Assembly can consult about at its next meeting.

It was a great pleasure to welcome our fellow Baha’is into our home. “It’s a lovely home,” they said. “So country,” Ellie, one of the Persian ladies, commented. Ellie is an interior designer. I think she meant that it has the feel of a country cottage.

Young Jacob was the focus of much of the attention, as always when he brings his mum to Feast. Even Emma the dog didn’t have to be banished from the sitting room.

Technorati Tags: Nineteen Day Feast, Baha’i, community, prayers, fellowship, friendship, Baha’u'llah, community of interest, inter-faith

Monday 21 August, 2006 We’ve been waiting for the roofers to come and fix a leak since Saturday. It was too wet on Saturday, and they’ve just called to say it will be too wet this morning. The weather!

Here’s a good website to visit. The Just One Day Project is an initiative by Victoria Leith and Fleur Missaghian to publish a series of books designed to promote unity, peace and happiness for humanity.

This amazing collection of diary entries was written by people from different cultures, ages, countries, backgrounds and professions, on World Peace Day, 21st September 2005.

Each person wrote about their day, sharing their thoughts on peace and giving the reader a window into their unique worlds. Each person did something that contributed towards peace in their local surroundings, helping step-by-step to make peace a reality by beginning at home with the individual. Each person also wrote about an organization, charity or worthy venture which they would like to promote to the rest of the world.

The book will be sold in all major bookstores in the UK, has been officially endorsed by Sir Richard Branson and has contributors from all over the world, some well-known, some not as well-known but all very important!

Vicky and Fleur are currently seeking sponsorship for the publication of the book, which has the backing of a publisher for sales and distribution but which needs finances for the printing. If you know of anyone who might be able to help, do let me know.

Technorati Tags: Just One Day, unity, peace, happiness, World Peace Day, Branson

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Training ship Thor Heyerdahl in Lerwick harbour, Shetland

I’ve just finished reading Patrick O’Brian’s Blue at the Mizzen, the twentieth and last of the historical novels about the lives and doings of Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr Stephen Maturin, naval surgeon, secret agent and Aubrey’s close friend. The first of the series is Master and Commander, which is probably the one most people will have heard of because of the film starring Russell Crowe.

The Bombardment of Algiers by the Royal Navy in 1816

This is what one critic writes about these wonderful novels:

Why do the sea-faring adventure novels of Patrick O’Brian enjoy such a phenomenally devoted readership? Actually, O’Brian enthusiasts can take their pick from a variety of qualities of excellence: the sheer command of writing technique; the adroit characterisation of his heroes, every bit as rich and well-rounded as anything in serious fiction; and, of course, the bracingly-realised atmosphere of the sea on which the author sets his tales of derring-do.

As a boy I read all the Hornblower novels, which I just loved. But the Aubrey/Maturin novels knock Hornblower into a cocked hat (an appropriate metaphor, given that cocked hats were usual apparel in the late 18th and early 19th century, which is when the Aubrey/Maturin novels are set). O’Brian’s main characters show their weaknesses as well as their strengths, and O’Brian is not afraid to allow his characters to suffer - sometimes to die.

“Lucky” Jack Aubrey is one of the most celebrated captains of the King’s Navy, as the traditionalists (like Jack Aubrey) called it and is famous for his brave actions, many of which gain him and his men large amounts of prize money. But he’s not so lucky on land and makes some serious mistakes in handling his money and his small estate. He has enemies at court as well as friends and his career is not a conventional one for the time, since he is often sent on special missions to take Maturin to do his secret agent stuff.

Maturin starts out as a complete landlubber and the complexities of an 18th century man-of-war are revealed to us through the explanations given him by the sailors of what the masts and sails and various bits of rigging do. O’Brian uses naval terminology of the time without explanation, so it’s useful, when reading the novels, to have some kind of reference book at hand. The one I like is Patrick O’Brian’s Navy, a beautifully illustrated history of the naval world that Jack Aubrey would have known.

The line-of-battle ships and the frigates of the Royal Navy of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were the most complex machines of their day. Their effectiveness in battle depended utterly on the skills of highly trained crews. The most effective ships were not those commanded by tyrannical officers who meted out terrible physical punishments for the least offence; the most effective ships were those in which the crew’s hearts and loyalty were given to their captain. Jack Aubrey was a “tight” captain: he expected - and got - absolute discipline, not by flogging his men within an inch of their lives, but by being fair, by caring for his men, and by being a matchless naval tactitian.

O’Brian’s writing has many strengths, not least of which are his ability to delineate character and his descriptions of naval battles. These descriptions take one right inside the battle, with all the noise and confusion and smoke and blood. Tension rises and the outcome is never a foregone conclusion. Beyond that, the feeling he conveys of living in a wooden-walled ship and travelling vast distances across the planet, utterly dependent on the wind and waves and on the stores that the ship is carrying, is unparalleled in my view. O’Brian himself was (he passed away in 2000) a sailor and loved the sea and ships.

Technorati Tags: Patrick O’Brian, novels, Aubrey, Maturin, Navy, ships, frigates

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