Seeing the world as one community

Despite being brought up in a small village, Dungiven in the heart of the Sperrin mountains (in Northern Ireland), I was aware of a wide range of religions from my father. He was headmaster of the tiny secondary school and was an avid reader and educator. Thanks to him, a whole generation of children in that area knew the world map with an intensity that was unique. Not only were all children expected to know where Bolivia, Kenya, Finland etc but also the major seas and of course all the continents. In the early years of secondary school he got children to write the names of countries on a huge blank world map at the front of the classroom. Within a few more years the best students could draw their own world map and label countries and most capitals. He developed games to reinforce their knowledge and in that secluded isolated village, high in the Sperrins, it is delightful to think of so many youngsters having their minds opened to the world beyond their tiny village. In today's world of compulsory syllabuses, learning goals, lesson plans and regular testing no teacher has the freedom to make the choices my father did. I fear the educational system is poorer as a result. I like to think that there are a whole bunch of middle-aged ex-students of my father in Northern Ireland watching their TVs in amazement as Americans are stopped and asked about world geography and demonstrate a bewildering ignorance of such things.  These ex-student’s of my dad could grab a blank piece of paper and stun the interviewer with their insights on this planet of ours and the nations that live on it.

The second priority of my dad's education system was learning about all the major world religions. In Dungiven, where there were only two groups of Christians, Protestants and Catholics, viewing each other with considerable hostility, my father taught the pupils about Hinduism, Judaism, Buddism, the Muslim Faith etc. So the basic knowledge conveyed was an insight into both the world’s nations and the faiths that sustain them. I like to think in his own way he was giving all a broader vision literally, of the world they lived in and the forces that shape the people in it. He was not popular because of this wider vision. Ignorant fanaticism was infinitely more popular. As one furious farmer shouted, 

“Look you're trying to stay on the fence between Protestants and Catholics and there is no room on that fence!”

I like to think that, in fact, my father was not focused on just being impartial between two opposing camps in the community but had a vision of the whole world and the diversity of the creeds and nations to be explored.

Almost 37 years ago I was at university and encountered the Baha’i Faith. I met the Baha’i community during their yearly fast. I remember peering into a dimly lit university refractory to see a group of students sitting eating and laughing together. When I asked what was going on, someone said the university had kept the cafeteria open longer especially for the Baha’i youth as they were fasting and could only eat after sunset. It seemed bizarrely opposite to the hedonistic lifestyle most students usually adopted when free from parental control for the first time. It made me curious but, I asked no questions, just made a mental note to check them out sometime.

My next encounter with a Baha'i happened in a lab deep in the bowels of the physics department at university. A visitor was announced and Richard St Barbe Baker OBE was introduced.  This was the famous ‘Man of the Trees’, an organisation he founded that is found all over the world and is still in existence today, known as the International Tree Foundation.  He was ahead of his time (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982) in that, even then, he knew the importance of trees to the planet, to our atmosphere and to the soil and ecosystem.  I was impressed that Baha’is  like him took such ethical stances concerning the environment.

My curiosity got the better of me and I began to talk to the Baha’i youth and attend their well attended international evenings which were known for serving food from all over the world. Everything I heard predisposed me towards this Faith. Radiant faces, the diversity of their backgrounds, their openhearted response to questions and discussion. This was no bigoted narrow set of beliefs but rather a calling to see the earth as one planet and mankind its citizens.  Its founder’s name was Bahá'u'lláh  and when I began to read his writings they had a huge impact on me.

“Possess a pure, kind and radiant heart that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.”

“Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship. He Who is the Daystar of Truth beareth Me witness! So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.”

The words seemed to reach in and open my heart to a new way of living, full of hope and endeavours.  I consulted my dad about this new religion, founded in 1844, and he bought me a book about Bahá'u'lláh called the King of Glory,  and had me inscribe on its front page the lines

“The truth will make you free.”

John 8:32

In this book Bahá’u'lláh's life of suffering, exile and imprisonment unfolded. Born in Iran, almost two hundred years ago, he became a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire and was sent to the prison city of Akka.  This is why the Baha’i World centre is found in Israel. His life story also demonstrated the power of goodness to prevail over fanaticism and hatred. The more I read  the more responsibility I felt for each member of this planet whatever their nation or religion.

If you are weary of deceit, falsehoods, disunity and division investigate a different path. Let the light of God’s words illuminate the way. There are no clergy in the Baha’i Faith, the equality of men and women is emphasised with refreshing intensity. In fact, Bahá’u'lláh stated if you cannot afford to educate all your children choose to educate the girl over the boy. Such is the importance of the role of mothers and educators of the next generation.

I like to think we were all meant to have a broader vision above our local realities. A view that lifts our heads from the small-minded pettiness of what we see around us. Our loyalties  to the entire human race must dominate every other allegiance. We all live on one planet and we must care for it and each other. Every action, every prayer should be for the betterment of the whole human race anything less does not beseem us.

“Let your vision be world embracing”.

Baha'i World Community

Maximinus Thrax- Giant in stature and gigantically flawed

The emperor of Rome, in the third century, Severus was returning from an eastern expedition, to celebrate with extensive military games, the birthday of his younger son Geta. The whole country gathered in crowds to watch their emperor and enjoy the spectacle. A young barbarian of enormous stature asked earnestly, in his crude dialect, to be allowed to contend in the wrestling match. As it would have offended the Roman soldiers for this crude barbarian to be successful,  in such a public match, only the toughest and stoutest followers of the camp were sent forward to wrestle with the cheeky barbarian. 

The barbarian wrestled successfully with 16 of the Roman soldiers, one after the other, laying each on the ground. His rewards were some small gifts and also he was permitted to enlist in the emperor’s troops.  The next day, the triumphant barbarian was seen dancing and exulting riotously amid the crowd of new recruits. By such unusual behaviour, he managed to attract the emperor’s notice. Immediately, he ran up to the emperor’s horse and proceeded to run alongside him as the Emperor rode at some pace.

At the end of this horse run, Emperor Severus, thinking the barbarian to be exhausted, cleverly suggested another wrestling match. The barbarian proceeded to overthrow seven of the strongest soldiers in the army. The barbarian, whose name was Maximin, won another prize of a gold collar and was promoted to serve in the house guards whose job it was to protect the sovereign.  The barbarian was descended from his father a Goth  (East Germanic people) and his mother of the nation of the Alini  (Iranian nomadic people). He was subsequently seen to show on every occasion a valour comparable to his enormous strength and a tremendous almost animal-like fierceness. He rose to the rank of centurion and was esteemed by Severus and his son. The fourth Legion, to which Maximin was appointed Tribune, soon became the best disciplined of the whole army. The soldiers applauded their impressive commander and would call him Ajax or Hercules and he was quickly promoted to even higher military command.

Maximinus was, according to all accounts, the biggest man ever to hold the office of Roman emperor.  The History Augusta claims he was 8 foot 6 ins tall and was renown for pulling laden carts single handed. His coins depict a man with a massive head and thick brow and huge, thick nose. Added to this were cold, narrowed eyes and the close-cropped hair of a professional soldier.

Such quick promotion inflamed the barbarian’s growing ambition. Although without much wisdom, he had a selfish cunning nature and years later realised that the new Emperor no longer had the affection of the army and he engineered their growing discontent for his own advantage. Eventually, he put to death the young leader and proclaimed himself emperor. He had a savage appearance and was completely ignorant of arts and had a great fear of the contempt of others. He could remember times waiting at the doors of proud nobles and not even been allowed admittance by their slaves. Those who remembered his previous obscurity were often put to death, even those who had been his benefactors. His baseness and ingratitude knew no limit.   Even without witnesses or without a trial, senators could be put to death and in one case along with 4000 others. On even the smallest accusation a Roman noble could be slaughtered, endure torture and be beaten to death with clubs. Anxious to amass wealth he stripped the temples of their most valuable ornaments of gold and silver and had statues melted down and made into money.

How his wife Caecilia Paulina died is a mystery; contemporary gossip claimed that Maximinus had cut her to pieces in a fit of rage.  It has been suggested that he probably suffered from a form of acromegaly. Of “frightening appearance and colossal size,” he displayed a prominent forehead, large nose, and lantern jaw, typical symptoms of pituitary gland overproduction of growth hormones. Maximinus seems to share some of those characteristics typical of this complaint.

Acromegaly is typically due to the pituitary gland producing too much growth hormone. In more than 95% of cases the excess production is due to a benign tumour.  There are a few famous modern cases of sufferers from this disease like Andre the Giant.  

In fact, as if to back up this premise recently the first complete ancient skeleton of a person with gigantism has been discovered near Rome (as reported in National Geographic), study in Nov 10, 2012 found dating from the same time period as Maximinus.

"At 6 feet, 8 inches tall, the man would have been a giant in third-century A.D. Rome, where men averaged about 5 and a half feet tall. Finding such skeletons is unique, because gigantism itself is extremely rare, today affecting about three people in a million worldwide. The condition begins in childhood, when a malfunctioning pituitary gland causes abnormal growth.

To find out if the skeleton had gigantism, the team examined the bones and found evidence of skull damage consistent with a pituitary tumour, which disrupts the pituitary gland, causing it to overproduce human growth hormone. His early demise—likely between 16 and 20—might also point to gigantism, which is associated with cardiovascular disease and respiratory problems."  

In fact, the life expectancy of a patient, even today, with untreated acromegaly is 50 years. This is because the condition causes cardiomyopathy and ventricular arrhythmia. Just in case you think Maximinus’s height is impossible there are a few more recent examples worth checking out.  The photos are pretty incredible.

Coyne was born in 1897 in Iowa, USA. His 1918 World War I draft card listed his height as 8 feet. His Guinness book of records entry states that he was refused entry to the war due to his height. At the time of his death it was possible that he had reached the height of 8 foot 4 inches.

Edouard Beaupré, born in 1881, was a circus sideshow freak, a strong man, and a star in Barnum and Baileys. He was the eldest of 20 children and was born in Canada. While he was of normal height during his first few years of life, by the age of nine he was 6 feet tall. His death certificate showed him as being 8’3″ and still growing. As a strongman, his feature stunt was crouching down and lifting a horse to his shoulders. He reportedly lifted horses as heavy as 900 pounds.

Leonid Stadnyk (8 feet 5 inches) was born in 1971 in the Ukraine. He is a registered veterinary surgeon and lives with his mother. He is currently the world’s tallest human according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Johan was born in America the year that his mother moved there from Norway. Interestingly his mother was also a giant, at 7’2″. According to his death certificate from Mendocino State Hospital, at the time of death he was 9’2″ – if this is true then he is the tallest recorded human – beating Robert Wadlow below, by 3 inches. He is buried in Montana.

Robert Wadlow was (8′ 11.1″) and was often referred to as the Alton giant because he came from Alton, Illinois. At the time of his death he weighed 440 pounds and showed no signs of stopping growing. He was born in 1918, the oldest of five children. He died at the age of 22 from an infection caused by a blister on his ankle, which he got while making a professional appearance at the National Forest Festival.

Interestingly, so many of the above giants are referred to as gentle characters.  It seems Maximinus shared their height but not their placid natures. What a terrifying spectacle he must have made in the third century!

Looking within, facing the past, finding you

Many people are in an angry, isolated and misunderstood state. Simple things that could have been resolved in a chat across a garden fence in five minutes have instead festered and grown. Even within family homes self-absorbed modes of being have stifled intergenerational exchanges. Instead of unity each retreats. Misunderstandings abound.  Disappointment is felt by many players and children lose out big time. Instead of daily conversations across a shared meal, something even our ancestors enjoyed over an open fire, we hardly touch base. The love that can be there goes unexpressed, unspoken, taken for granted and exhausts existing bank balances of shared experiences and love. No wonder disappointment reigns.  

If we’re honest our own disappointment lies closer to home. We are not what we thought we could or would be. This present shadowy creature is not a reflection of our inner reality. We sense that at a fundamental level. But veils have come between us and our own hearts. No wonder those around seem inscrutable and bewildering. We are not even sure how we ended up here. There is a vague memory of another desired path. It has been so long since we glimpsed it we’ve accepted the present landscape as our reality.

Never has time been more precious or more abused. Take a moment to look around at the faces. Sit in a cafe, train station or street centre and watch the faces. Be heartbroken at the misery written plain in too many. See others. Look at their expressions and feel your own heart contract in sympathy. Know too, that this face, that you see, is their public one. It is the shell that they adopt when exposed to the general population. Then, just imagine if you could see them at home in their own little box able to relax and really let the defences down.  Some don't even have this luxury. Their private homes are even worse plays that call on acting skills to see them through the long hours. They must perform charades, exhausted by the effort that entails. Souls lacerated, they self harm to excise the pain. Whether that harm is with a razor, drug, drink, overeating, under eating, gambling etc it matters not. These symptoms of dreadful wrongs haunt the spaces of our society.

At a time when happiness is sought by so many why has misery become ever more abundant?  These are questions that need asked. We have to remove the barriers within us. Allow the quiet honest reflection that enables you to question your own spirit and really listen to what it says. It may surprise you. Just allow silence into your life. 

Turn off all the news, entertainment, gossip, never ending tasks and, as you would with a dear dear friend who you've not seen for decades, ask the real questions that matter. Allow time for the answers to bubble up from deep within. A lot of hurt, disappointment will surface too but be patient. Deep within, you have something worth waiting for. Don't be distracted by the flak. Hold fast, it is worth it. When there is love, there is always enough time. Suddenly, there will be a flash of you. Crystal clear glimpses of the old you that is still in there. At first it may appear like shards of a broken mirror, the pieces of an old image. Reclaim yourself, you are worth the effort.

You are worthy of love and respect. You cannot feel it for others if you don't claim it for yourself. Allow the the real you step forward and recognise the voice that has been silent too long. You will get distracted and disappointed by the inactivity and lack of results. Hurt by bad memories you’ve tucked deep away. Swamped by feelings of fragility that emerges. Being sensitised is a hurtful thing! See past that, to the fluid nature within. You are all these feelings and experiences but you are even more.

Trust the voice within you, even if it just says “shut up”! Be patient, this is a dear friend who deserves your love. They have walked with you on epic journeys of heartbreak. Be still and respect the insights they offer. Know too that you will get better at mining these gems that lie inside. You are worth the effort so start digging for those jewels.

It is said our lives flash before us as we die.  Perhaps it is because in order to see, actually see the light you need to clear out the debris of life.  Why wait until the end, when this moment could be the  beginning of everything.

PS  If you don’t whether to trust the response that comes from within.  Know that there is a touchstone to measure the authenticity of real insights from vain imaginings. 

“And the honour and distinction of the individual consist in this, that he …should become a source of social good. Is any larger bounty conceivable than this, that an individual, looking within himself, should find … he has become the cause of peace and well-being, of happiness and advantage to his fellow men?”  

A Plague of Our Times

The plague has struck humanity repeatedly over our long history. An early mention of the plague occurs in 1 Samuel, in the old Testament, where the Philistines are struck down after they steal the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelis. The description of the disease is identical to that exhibited by the plague.  It is believed that the book of Samuel was composed between 630 and 540 BC but used much older source documents. Remarkably, Even older evidence than this has been discovered, dating to 1350 BC, when the fossilised remains of plague fleas were found in Amana Egypt.  Obviously, this disease has been around for thousands of years and been responsible for the loss of an unbelievable number of human lives.

The plague is in an acute infectious disease caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis and is still endemic in indigenous rodent populations of South and North America, Africa and Central Asia. The disease is transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea. Primary hosts of the flea are thought to be the black urban rat and the brown sewer rat.  

The Justinian plague of 541 started in central Africa and spread to Egypt and the Mediterranean.

It was named after the Roman emperor of that time.  How unfortunate to go down in posterity named after one of the most frightening and virulent diseases!  The early historians describe the effect of the disease. They said people had a sudden fever and then they developed swellings on their body, in the groin, inside the armpit and also beside the ears and even on different points on the thighs.  Constantinople lost 10,000 of its population per day and by the end of the outbreak a third of the total population of the city had died from the plague. The disease spread as far north as Denmark, west to Ireland and then even to Africa the Middle East and Asia Minor. In total, it is thought that between the years 542 AD and 546 AD the plague killed nearly 100 million people.

An eyewitness, John of Ephesus describes the process.

“[Theodore] made very large pits, inside each of which 70,000 corpses were laid down. He thus appointed men there, who brought down corpses, sorted them and piled them up. They pressed them in rows on top of each other, in the same way as someone presses hay in a loft ... Men and women were trodden down, and in the little space between them the young and infants were pressed down, trodden with the feet and trampled down like spoilt grapes.”

It is difficult to describe the fear, the devastation and the scale of the loss of life at this time. By the end of the plague a quarter of the population of the Roman Empire was dead.

The plague returned as the black death of 1347 AD. This pandemic was brought to the Crimea from Asia Minor.  The Tartar armies of Khan Janibeg had laid siege to the town of Kaffa (now Feodosya in Ukraine) but were unsuccessful. Before they left, they catapulted the corpses of plague victims over the walls into the city.  The citizens of Kaffa fled in ships, carrying the disease with them all through Europe.  Meanwhile, the Tartars also carried the plague with them further to Russia and India.  War like fleas, it seems are perfect vectors for the spread of disease.  A lesson that humanity, even after thousands of years, it seems has not yet been learned.

In medieval accounts there are descriptions of the symptoms of the disease. It begins with tumours in the groin or armpit some of which grow as large as an apple, others the size of an egg. Then black spots appear on the arms and thighs. 

History calls it the Black Death.  The overall mortality rate varied from city to city. In Florence, half the population died. People died with such rapidity proper burial or cremation could not occur. Corpses were once again thrown into large pits and putrefying bodies lay in their homes and in the streets. Transmission of the illness was thought to be by disease carrying vapours emanating from the corpses and the from the breath of an infected or sick person. Others thought the Black Death was a punishment from God for their sins. People joined in huge processions of flagellants whipping themselves with nail embedded scourges and incanting hymns and prayers as they passed from town to town.  As much as 88% of those afflicted with the disease died. The plague lead to a preoccupation with death and some macabre artwork such as The Triumph of Death by Pieter Breughel the Elder in 1562 AD.  

By the end of the outbreak a quarter of the population of Europe, over 25 million people, were dead.  The scale of the loss of life was such that by 1430 AD Europe's population was lower than it had been in 1290 AD and indeed would not recover its pre-pandemic level until the 16th century!

In the 15th and 16th centuries doctors wore a peculiar costume to protect themselves from the plague when they attended infected patients. They were clothed from head to foot in leather or oil cloth robes, with leggings, gloves and a hood. This was topped with a wide brimmed hat and a beak like a mask with glass eyes and two breathing nostrils filled with aromatic herbs and flowers to fend off the fumes. They avoided touching their patients and would lance tumours with knives several feet long.  Even now the picture is horrific but imagine how it felt for their patients!

Another small epidemic occurred in London in September 1665 AD when 7000 people per week were dying. By the end of that year a fifth of London’s population had died.  An old familiar English nursery rhyme published in 1881, reminds us, all too clearly  of the symptoms of the plague. 

Ring a-ring a roses (a red blistering rash)

a pocketful of posies (fragrant herbs and flowers to ward off the disease)

atishoo, atishoo (the sneeze and the cough heralding pneumonia)

we all fall down.(all dead)

Just in case we think the plague is a thing of the past it's important to realise that outbreaks still occur. Here are the figures over the last few decades. 

Given our present antibiotics the death toll from the plague has been reduced to a kill rate of only 16% nowadays. However, It is particularly worrisome that some multi drug- resistant strains of the bacillus are appearing.  This is not a good  omen for the future.  The ways in which we can become infected are also multiplying. 

To make matters worse, we are sometimes playing risky games with this age old killer.  In 2015 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US reported (after inspections of an army base in Maryland) one of the Pentagon’s most secure labs, had mislabelled and improperly stored and even shipped samples of potentially infectious plague bacteria!

If history has taught us anything about this dreadful disease over the past three millennium it is surely this.

1. we should be on guard against complacency
2. avoid unnecessary wars and 
3. forced movement of millions 
4. protect the health and well being of all human beings to boost their natural immunity 
5. and never for a moment assume we have this endemic killer under our total control.

scary facts  once you open the webpage  click on it to enlarge!

PS Used a lot of info from The History of the Plague - The Three Great Pandemics by John Firth

Fasting - progressing or regressing?

There are many reasons to fast. Several organisations have claimed extraordinary health benefits for fasting. I enjoyed this talk on the surprising changes it can bring.

In fact if you tell people you're fasting for health benefits most people will be impressed with your determination and strength of mind. Slightly in awe of someone choosing not to eat or drink when they have the freedom to do both. In an age where obesity is endemic in the developed world, with all its associated diseases, those who choose the opposite direction stand out.  They are akin to the super fit among us whose regular frenetic workouts keep them energised and in shape. They are to be to be admired for not going with the flow. Actually finding the wherewithal to go in the opposite direction to the norm. After all, for a huge swathe of humans, being without food or clean water is not a choice. They wrestle daily to obtain these basic necessities and die periodically in substantial numbers when they lose this battle. 

We live in a world that has those who literally eat themselves to an early death and others starving from malnutrition who die because of a lack of food. In case we think these two extremes are linked to each other it is important to point out the obvious difference. Those who eat their way into obesity and diabetes do have a choice. Those who are dying of hunger rarely do. You might argue that the food industry has cleverly generated over zealous consumers of their manufactured products to earn them millions. That by the use of sugar, flavour enhancers, excess salt and other means the food industry has caused the obesity we see around us. There may be some truth to this and those who target children with their unhealthy fare are becoming rightly the target of the public's ire. However, in general the public is distracted and in the void where information should be, entertainment and advertisements have elbowed their way in. It is becoming harder to discern the truth. Instead of right and wrong we seem to have only shades.

In a world of excess those who choose to do with less are admired. In a world of scarcity to choose to do with less is suicidal. We admire those who control their appetite by fasting because it is uncommon. Of course those who fast because they have a psychological disorder receive no such admiration. The inner prompting that keeps an anorexic from eating is recognised as a sickness not admired  as self control. The Romans overindulged and then routinely vomited so they could repeat the delight of eating again similarly do not deserve applause. Food is so fundamental to well-being we all inherently fear its wastage to greater or smaller degrees. My mother-in-law who lived through war and the shortage of food that entailed wept in her son’s restaurant kitchen, in Texas, to see huge uneaten steaks being scooped into the bins. To those with experience of hunger, food is infinitely precious.

Fasting for religious purposes is viewed differently by most. When I, as a Baha’i, fast people are sometimes uncomfortable. They can see it as fanatical, incomprehensible and almost akin to scourging. It is undoubtably antisocial.  How many times do I find myself not joining friends at such times. They become self-conscious eating and drinking in my presence despite protestations to the contrary. Not been able to give you a cup of tea or coffee as you enter their home makes them feel like a helpless host. So what is it that fasting does for me.

1. It helps me discover all my addictions. For example, coffee drinking has to stop at least a month before the fast. Otherwise the fast becomes  a time of endurance and not enjoyment.
2. It's frees up time to commune with God. Without tea, coffee, biscuits and meals there is suddenly so much time available. The mind is clearer and sharper. There are less distractions.
3. The physical doing without food or water from sunrise to sunset is not the hardest part. For me dealing with the cold is a major issue. I am sitting at present  wearing jumpers, coat, gloves and a scarf in the shopping mall. Two tourists have wondered by in tank tops and shorts. I'm not sure what goes wrong with my body when deprived of food and drink but for whatever reason hypothermia is the result.
4. Dealing with the physical effects of fasting is not the hardest part at all. The challenge is actually growing spiritually as a result of fasting. It is possible to do without food or water day after day with rigid discipline but advance not one jot spiritually. In fact that's not true. Because I'm convinced our spiritual state is dynamic not static it's quite possible to fast and move further away from God.  You can become grumpy and bad tempered. You can suddenly be judgemental of others! Any self satisfaction during this period can be dangerous. It can generate pride that causes your spirit to actually shrivel.
5. We are told that some who fast will not be accepted by God and many that don't fast, will. In other words, it seems it's not the decision to put something in your mouth or not that determines the spirituality of this period. It is the degree to which we succeed during these days of rejuvenating our spirit. It can allow us insights on what we can achieve and what we need to change within. It triggers the possibility of transformation and provides a quiet space for that possibility.

Every year it feels like the sands of this special time are running through my fingers before I can truly grasp them. Creating the space once a year reminds me that we are all crops in progress. There are things needed weeded out, seeds requiring planting, plants to be pruned and all need the water of life to strengthen them. Everything you do this season will influence the year ahead. May yours, like the coming spring, be fruitful and abundant with promise.

My brothers are hungry too!

We had just bought our first house. It was a small gate lodge with a huge garden. It even had its own little forest in the corner. The kids loved it. This move to the countryside provided the three boys (all under 10) with the freedom to play outside. The contrast between our previous urban existence on a rough estate to this rose garden encircled cottage could not be greater.

We enthusiastically carted boxes of our belongings from the hired transport van to our new home. So involved were we with moving we forgot to prepare food. Our younger son, Daniel decided he was hungry and went off to explore our new neighbourhood. He wandered off to a row of pensioner's houses on a lane opposite. A friendly pensioner spotted Daniel and struck up a conversation with our chatty three-year-old who told him how very hungry he was. Andrew welcomed Daniel into his home and introduced him to his wife Vera, a South African. A lovely elderly couple who had spent their lives up to their 40s taking care of their ill parents. It was only after the death of their respective parents that the pair met at the wedding of a relative of Andrew's. They married and had one son.  Andrew worked in the nearby cement quarry for the whole of his life. In their cosy living room Daniel was fed and given a drink and even a bar of chocolate. At their door, as he left, the canny Daniel, informed them that he had two brothers as hungry as he was!  The generous pensioners filled a plastic bag with provisions for his brothers. Daniel returned to our house like a triumphant hunter gatherer.  We were shocked by his audacity and yet impressed with his initiative. When we went to thank these pensioners we found two gems. Both were as kind as they were wise. Andrew had built a huge conservatory, all home-made, with even an oil heater to heat it. Entering that quiet conservatory we would often find Vera working away at a massive jigsaw puzzle on a specially designed table while Andrew read his newspaper.  How many times we’d enter this serene place and be plied with huge quantities of tea and biscuits.

They grew amazing tomatoes and supplied us with jars of their famous chilli and tomato chutney. Andrew’s kindness was constant and in the years ahead brought only joy to all our lives. Andrew taught Daniel how to ride his first bike. They felt like a real family. I remember trying to move our caravan from the garden. It seemed an impossible task until Andrew flagged down a passing tractor driver who had the caravan hauled out in a matter of minutes. It was at that moment I realised what being part of a community meant. Andrew had been brought up in this part of the world. Gone to school here, worked a lifetime in this rural setting. When he flagged down a passing driver they were obviously going to help. He was well known in the neighbourhood and everyone seemed to know him and like him. Daniel had chosen well!

Years later we moved abroad but on visits to Northern Ireland, Andrew and Vera were a joy to catch up with.  Illness plagued Andrew. This huge man with hands like shovels had operation after operation. The cement dust from the years of quarry work troubled his lungs.  On subsequent visits we could see his decline. Slow but remorseless.  He was ever loved and his only son worked hard to make the house suitable for his now disabled father. Andrew was ill but surrounded by his extended family including happy young grandchildren. It was a good 15 years later from that first visit of Daniel to the couple that we got news that Andrew was hospitalised and seriously ill. Daniel sat beside Andrew’s bed during a visit as he wavered in and out of consciousness. Daniel whispered “Andrew is the first friend I ever made in my life”. It was hard to lose this good friend.

We never know the effect our lives have on others. But this couple graced their neighbourhood with their good natures. For my three sons Andrew raised the standard of what being ‘a good man’ really meant. Showed true nobility  can be demonstrated in times of laughter and in times of pain and illness. Just by their existence this couple made this world a better place. They engender hope in all of us that good people transform not just themselves but the wider community too.  They touch lives and sprinkle the gold dust of their kindness on all those they meet. When I see kindness in Daniel I am reminded of Andrew and his bag of goodies on that first visit. 

A few memories - from the walls and shelves of my parents

Mum in Canada with my brothers.  My favourite photograph of the three of them!

The only thing I ever won in competition (it was a family effort) and we received a lovely bicycle. This telegram was brought from the post office by hand and it was so exciting! Strange to find it after all these years. The winning entry was

"People who pedal past petrol pumps save lives, save health and save money"

Re-reading my Dad's shelves of books and loving Cosmos.  In it Carl Sagan describes Kepler (1571 – 1630), that awesome scientist who discovered so much about the movement of the planets.  At a time when people thought these bodies moved in circles, Kepler came up with the notion of them being elliptical. He used the formula of an ellipse, first codified in the Alexandria library by Apollonius of Perga (262 BC –  190 BC) who had worked out the speed of the moon (one of the craters is named after Apollonius, in honour of his achievements).  You've got to hand it to these guys and strange to think of all that knowledge being lost for so long.  

Kepler worked out so much about the movement of the planets and three fundamental laws of physics remain named after him to this day.  It is impossible to exaggerate his contributions to Astronomy.  In Kepler's hometown of Weil der Stadt three women were tortured and killed as witches every year between 1615 and 1629.  Many scapegoats were elderly women living alone who were blamed for illnesses suffered by others.  It is perverse that Kepler's own cankerous 74 year old mother was carried off in a laundry basket in the middle of the night to face a charge of witchcraft.  Poor Kepler had to leave his contemplation of celestial bodies and return to his home town to argue in his mother's defence.  This, he was eminently capable of and he turned his logical and excellent mind to proving that in no way could his mother be responsible for the minor health complaints of neighbours.  His argument won out and he freed her from the dungeon but she was exiled from the town of Wurttemberg for life and would have been executed had she returned. Kepler lost his benefactors who funded his research due to the Thirty Year War.  During this period he also lost his wife and his son who both died. He was even excommunicated from his Faith due to his uncompromising individualism.   Kepler envisioned 'celestial ships with sails adapted to the winds of heaven' navigating the sky 'who would not fear the vastness of space'.  How sad that this brilliant scientist was reduced to constructing horoscopes for the rich nobility to earn a living.  Today explorers of space use his laws of planetary motion and ride on the shoulders of this unique genius.  

Another book from my Dad's shelves is called Conquistadors by Micheal Wood.

In 1542 Dominican Bartholome de Las Casas wrote a short account of the Destruction of the Indies and dedicated it to the future King Philip II.  Arguments had started about whether the Spanish had a right to make war on the native people of South America to force them to accept Christianity.   As Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos had so eloquently argued a few decades earlier,
'Are these Indians not men?  Do they not have rational souls?  Are you not obliged to love them as yourselves?'

Given the extent of slaughter of the native people these were important issues.  A Council of Fourteen was convened to properly discuss the matter and in the meantime King Charles V ordered all Spanish conquests in America be stopped.  Las Casas and the philosopher Sepulveda debated for five months.  Sepulveda argued that native societies were devoid of civilisation and hence virtually devoid of humanity.  Taking their gold, demolishing their political structures, acquiring their land and the widespread genocide was all justified. Las Casas who had, unlike Sepulveda, lived for decades in the Americas spoke eloquently and powerfully.  Las Casa's arguments were,

1. the world is indeed one
2. human beings are the same
3. all have the possibility of self fulfillment and achieving goodness
4. no matter how rude, uncivilised and barbarous, savage or brutal a people could be, all can be persuaded into a good way of life - provided that the method used is proper and natural to men - namely love, gentleness and kindness.

Las Casas won the debate!  This historic victory could have prevented much of the suffering that later happened in so many parts of the world to native people.  This could have been a real milestone for humanity.  However, power and greed became the real drivers and quickly trumped morality and conscience.  Was it ever so?  

Genius minds discovering the intricacies of the movement of the planets, great intellects urging respect of others, all so ahead of their day.  With the passing centuries we see more clearly the truths they were urging others to accept.  We also see the suffering that stupidity, greed and a lack of moral conscience brings to this world.  

My grandfather fought in World War I.  He was sixteen and the recruitment officer told him to walk around the table and come back and say he was seventeen.  In order to enlist he needed to be a year older.  He found himself in the Somme, was shot and awarded a commendation for bravery.  He never spoke of his experiences much.  He was the most fearless person I ever encountered.

My grandmother on the other side of the family painted this.  She became a teacher and had five children.  She never had time to touch a paint brush again.  I reckon she had talent.  But what do I know?  Perhaps her five children were her real creative output.