Descent into madness and avoiding rabbit holes

Lockdown felt, at times, like a rabbit hole down which one sinks with remorseless ease.  Its progress or regress could be expressed most simply in terms of television viewing habits.  But I feared that under the surface, far more insidious changes are happening. 

“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”        Khalil Gibran

It started with "Say, yes to the dress" a programme where women young and old come to find their bridal outfit in a plush shop in New York City.  There, they spend small fortunes to find that mystical dress that will transform their wedding into a fantasy story.  In the plush, spoiled environment they prance and complain and demand still more.  After a while one grows tired of their demands and expectations.  You simply become bored with their selfish absorption of how they want to look on the big day.  It is no coincidence that even the most expensive extreme dress is not quite enough and disappointment is often clear on their cosmetically enhanced features. 

Beauty and folly are often companions.                                    French Proverb

So I turned to another type of wedding outfitters.  Nazranaa Diaries offered a much more extreme range of dresses in terms of colour and richness both for brides and bridegrooms.  The vivid colours and range of styles make the ordinary bride wear very humdrum indeed.

An extra component is that the men are regaled in outfits just as over the top as the women.  It is refreshing to see men decide what suits them.

However, it is the young brides who usually dictate the colour and design of both bridal outfits.  Remonstrating with their groom-to-be about the colours of the wedding venue, their chosen colour palette and how the groom's outfit has to fit with her dress.    Her bridesmaids often have strong opinions too and the grooms are commonly paraded in increasingly bizarre clothes that are chosen for them whatever their own wishes.  It suddenly occurs to the viewer that this does not bode well for the future of the marriage.  Just once a groom held firm to his favourite outfit and his bride sulked and threatened him.  Her bridesmaid told him it made him look ridiculous.  He decided he wanted it anyway.  After a hundred episodes of hen picked grooms it was a wonder to behold.  "But it clashes with my dress!" His bride cried real tears to get her way. In the awkward moments that followed of his weeping tear-stained bride,  he fixed her with a steely glare and said: "I want this one!" I wanted to stand and clap in satisfaction.  But there are only so many Asian outfits despite the wider range of colours and shapes and sizes one can watch.  I grew weary of the expense and the shallowness of all it portrayed.

After that, I turned to the series on Big Fat Gipsy Weddings where the wedding dresses are so extreme and over the top that after only a few episodes I wearied of the excesses.  Somehow the outfits remind me of the tackiness and creepiness of Punch and Judy puppets.  I don't know why?

“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.”                         Confucius

By this stage, I was sickening of the self-obsessed prancing of brides-to-be in front of mirrors and screams of "Oh how beautiful I look!"  Quite frankly their happiness neither pleased nor entertained but merely bored me.  I needed something more hard-hitting, more emotion-inducing.  I found it in the series Curvy Brides Boutique.  Here very fat brides go to a wedding dress shop in the countryside designed for the larger woman.  Instead of being disappointed at finding one or no dresses to fit them, they are delighted to find an entire shop full of wedding dresses that actually fit them.  Nearly all these fat woman hate their image in the mirror so much that they don't like looking at themselves at all.  Their humility and lack of pride are refreshing.  They come across as so much nicer people.  Modest and self-effacing.  Prepared to laugh at themselves and with the very lowest of expectations regarding their wedding dress.  They just want to find a dress that fits, that will do.  So watching them get perfect makeup and hair then being given a dress that, with corsets, creates a waist was like watching Cinderella being transformed for the ball.  A kindly, fat, lacking in confidence Cinderella that deserved to have her big moment.  The look on their faces when the right dress is found is not triumphant but emotional and tearful.  They look genuinely surprised at their reflection in the mirror and say things like "I cannot believe I look alright in this dress".  As if being hideous was their birthright.  Their happiness makes them beautiful and you suddenly see that too.  All have stories and many touch your heart.  So many have been bullied because of their weight throughout school and they speak of the unkindness of others.  One feels ashamed at the cruelty of humankind and how much damage is inflicted to sweet souls every single day because of how they look.  A large young twenty-four-year-old had donated one kidney to her Mum and had put on a lot of weight since the operation.  Her bravery and act of selflessness which saved her mother's life spoke of the quality of this young lady and suddenly you realised what a lucky man her groom was.  The compassion and kindness of these self-deprecating ladies was the perfect antidote to the self-absorption of those earlier skinny brides.

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”              Rumi

Then, I grew tired of this rabbit hole entirely and saught the light.  Watching TV is such a degrading sedentary practice in so many ways.  You spend so much time digesting stuff that is unwholesome searching for more extreme versions of what you have already seen.  Your taste becomes odder and quirkier and jaded.    I call it a descent into madness and I tell the tale as a warning.  Avoid this particular rabbit hole and choose a healthier and more productive path.  WE are what we Do.

Last Word on Wood

Tree saves 150 People from death

Trees sometimes save lives. Take for example a large 300-year-old tamarind tree in the grounds of the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad, India.  In 1908 there was a devastating flood in the town when the Musi river rose 16 feet in 3 hours.  The resulting flood eventually caused around 15,000 deaths, destroyed more than 19,000 homes and made one-quarter of the entire city’s population homeless.  A famous Urdu poet, Amjad Hyderabadi, saved his life by hanging on to the branches of the large tamarind tree in the hospital grounds. Amjad lost his mother, wife and daughter who were drowned in the deluge. He was one of 150 people who managed to survive by clinging to this particular tree for two days.  It still stands to this day and its role in saving so many lives is still celebrated annually.

Some trees are just so historic and productive. 

The oldest known olive tree in the world is found in Crete, Greece. This ancient Olive Tree of Vouves (Elia Vouvon) still produces olives. There are only seven olive trees in the Mediterranean which are thought to be over 2,000 years old. Although the exact age of the Olive Tree of Vouves cannot be verified, scientists from the University of Crete have estimated it to be 4,000 years old! Branches from this tree were used to weave victors' wreaths for the winners of the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  The use of an olive branch to symbolize peace is even earlier than ancient Greek mythology as it had already appeared centuries earlier in Ancient Egypt as a symbol of peace. It also has its place in the Old Testament of the Bible.  It was an olive branch (or leaf, depending on the translation) which was brought back to Noah by a dove to demonstrate that the flood was over (Book of Genesis, 8:11).  So, it has been a positive symbol of peace in many cultures for many millennia.

The oldest Individual Trees of All

Two of the oldest trees in the world are the Great Basin bristlecone pine (5,062 years old) and Methuselah (4,845 years old), both of which are from the same species and live in California’s White Mountains.  Sad note: there was an even older specimen however in 1964, a certain Donal Rusk Currey killed it. To this day, there has still never been an older tree discovered. Basically, Currey got his tree corer so stuck in the tree that it wouldn’t come out.  An unwitting park ranger helped him by cutting the tree down, to free the instrument, and later Currey began to count the tree rings. Eventually, he realised to his horror that the tree he had just felled was greater than 5,000 years old – the oldest living tree ever recorded.  It is no wonder that the location of these old trees in California is kept secret to protect them!  There is something horrific about killing a majestic living organism that existed before the pyramids were even built.

Trees also warn their neighbours

When a giraffe eats an acacia tree the leaves of the tree being eaten emit ethylene gas to warn other trees. This gas triggers them to pump tannins into their own leaves.  This toxin can kill large herbivores and serves to protect the nearby acacia trees. 

Trees keep injured neighbour alive!

In New Zealand, there is a kauri tree stump (Agathis australis) that should be dead. However, it is very much alive due to the root systems of surrounding trees.  These have kept the stump on life support by sharing water and nutrients.

Scientists have long suspected such sharing networks exist but proving such resource transfers take place has been difficult.   Researchers found the stump in a rainforest in the Waitakere Ranges on New Zealand’s North Island. Even though the stump was missing branches and leaves it was very much alive. They found that the surrounding kauri trees were supplying the stump with a lifeline of sap and water through their roots connecting with the stump roots.  Many trees – nearly 150 species-form roots with other trees of the same species to exchange water and nutrients. Foresters have reported living stumps as far back as the 1800s, but this is one of the first studies of how they survive.

The finding adds to a growing understanding that trees and other organisms can work together for the benefit of a forest.  Given that trees do it, surely, we humans need to learn from them!
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2211209-tree-stumps-that-should-be-dead-can-be-kept-alive-by-nearby-trees/#ixzz6Q2T2LQB5

Making clones to live longer!

When we talk about age and allow clones to be included, then all the above-mentioned trees are mere youngsters. Pando is a clonal colony of an individual male quaking aspen determined to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers and assumed to have one massive underground root system. It is found in Fishlake National Forest in south-central Utah, United States. The root system of Pando, at an estimated 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms we know.

Sadly, Pando is currently thought to be dying. Though the exact reasons are not known, it is thought to be a combination of factors.  It has stopped growing for the last 30-40 years and a study in October 2018 concluded that human interference was named as the primary cause of its demise.  I don’t know why this seems so horrific but it does.  The world's most massive and oldest organism is being killed and we seem to be responsible.

Conclusion 

I suspect like me you have a growing respect for trees and a growing suspicion we should learn from them and certainly stop destroying these precious lungs of our planet.  Their contribution to neighbourhoods around them and their very presence on this planet over the millennium has always served to enrich and beautify.  Would that we could aspire to follow their example.  Our connection to this natural world is a reality that we must respect and preserve not abuse.

"..ye walk on My earth complacent and self-satisfied, heedless that My earth is weary of you.."

The Hidden Words, Bahá’u’lláh

The Cedar Trees of Lebanon, useful, aromatic and so historic

Trees are pretty epic. Take for example the ‘Cedars of God’. This refers to cedar trees in the mountains of northern Lebanon. They are actually mentioned in the Bible 75 times. The ancient Egyptians even used the resin from cedar trees in the mummification process. Herodotus (484 –425 BC) and later Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24–79) had claimed that they did but this had been contested by many. It took just 2,000 years to prove that the pharaohs had indeed used cedar oil as the ideal embalming fluid just as Pliny and Herodotus had claimed. Scientists from Munich and Tübingen reported in Nature in 2003 that they had analysed embalming material from 1500 BC, found at Deir-el-Bahari in Egypt and cedar oil was the choice of embalming fluid.

These Lebanese cedar trees are particularly aromatic and very resistant to decay and bugs. King David (roughly 1010-970 BC) used cedarwood in building his palace.  (2 Samuel 5:11)

King Solomon (970–931 BC), the tenth son of King David, also used the Lebanon cedar trees in the construction of the first temple in Jerusalem.  In fact, even the altar within the temple which supported the Ark of the Covenant was reported to be made of this cedarwood. 

"Behold, I will liken you to a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and forest shade"

(Ezekiel 31:3)

  

It occurs most abundantly at altitudes of 1,300 to 3,000 m and is even used in medicine. Cedarwood oil has anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties.  Hebrew priests were ordered by Moses (roughly 1391 BC - 1271 BC) to use the bark of the Lebanon cedar in the treatment of leprosy. Leviticus 14:1–4

Isaiah, born in the 8^th century BC, the Hebrew prophet used the Lebanon cedar as a metaphor for the pride of the world, with the tree explicitly mentioned as a symbol of the righteous.

“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon” Psalm 92:12

This area of Lebanon, high in the mountains, used to be covered in a vast forest of cedar trees but the trees of Lebanon have suffered a period of destruction that pains the heart and is recorded in the journals of travellers over the years.

Pierre Belon visited the area in 1550, making him the first modern traveller to identify the Cedars of God in his ‘’ Observations’’. He counted 28 trees and wrote

“At a considerable height up the mountains the traveller arrives at the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, which is situated in the valley. Thence proceeding four miles up the mountain, he will arrive at the cedars, the Maronites or the monks acting as guides. The cedars stand in a valley, and not on top of the mountain, and they are supposed to amount to 28 in number.."

Leonhard Rauwolf followed in 1573-75, could only find 24 trees:

Jean de Thévenot counted 23 trees in 1655

Laurent d'Arvieux in 1660 counted 20 trees

Henry Maundrell in 1697 counted 16 trees of the “very old” type

Given this quick and steady decimation concern for the protection of the biblical "cedars of God" grew and in 1876, the 102-hectare (250-acre) grove was surrounded by a high stone wall, paid for by Queen Victoria, to protect saplings from browsing by goats.  However, this did not stop the British using the cedars in building railways.

In the Sumerian versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh  (1800 BC)  the earliest surviving great work of literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts, the hero in the poem cuts down the cedars of Lebanon.   Strange that this piece of famous literature had 3500 years previously hinted at the destruction that would take place here!

  

Fortunately, the "Committee of the Friends of the Cedar Forest" initiated a reforestation program in 1985. These efforts will take decades due to the slow growth of cedars.  It is hoped these historical trees will be allowed to multiple and hopefully enthrall many future generations with their splendid snowy coverings high in the mountains.  They have so far planted 40,000 cedar trees so things are looking hopeful. Something so beautiful that has been treasured for so long, by so many surely deserves to be preserved.

"Regard thou faith as a tree. Its fruits, leaves, boughs and branches are, and have ever been, trustworthiness, truthfulness, uprightness and forbearance." 

Baháʼí Writings

PS apologies for dates as there is a wide discrepancy in accepted dates given - but they give a ballpark figure which for me is valuable.

PPS not at all recommending cedar oil for leprosy. But in old days being able to slap on something that would reduce inflammation/bacteria for seven days probably meant a lot that would have been considered unclean/lepers were given the all-clear and allowed to rejoin their family and community.

What trees teach us about hope and resilience

About hope in the face of disaster and death

On August 6, 1945, a 9,000 pound U-235 bomb was dropped over the city of Hiroshima. The nuclear bomb exploded destroying five square miles of the city. Ninety per cent of the city was destroyed and 80,000 people died immediately. Thousands more died later.

This explosion had a devastating impact on humans and even buildings.  Sometimes the two merged when humans were so powerfully obliterated by the explosion that the only visible remains of such individuals were a shadow on a nearby wall.  Most of us are familiar with those scenes of disaster.  Less well known are the “survivors”, in particular the trees, shrubs and groves that managed to survive that horrific day. 

170 trees survived in 55 locations, within about 1¼ miles of ground zero when most of the other trees and vegetation were destroyed. Over the ensuing years, the City of Hiroshima, tree experts, and citizen volunteers have lovingly tended the trees that survived the bomb. Each bears a nameplate reading Hibakujumoku  (survivor tree).

Some trees looked scorched beyond survival but despite retaining the lifelong scars of the blast on their bark managed miraculously to stay alive.  These “survivors” have become a reminder of the spirit of Hiroshima.  Indeed, these damaged trees have become perversely representatives of peace.  Seeds from these survivors have been posted to countries all around the world and been planted to encourage the importance of peace and remind all nations of the deadly consequences of war.

Over 2000 years of Resilience bears fruit

Around 1963-1965, excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada, Israel, revealed a store of date palm seeds perfectly preserved in an ancient jar. These had been stored in a very dry and sheltered environment for centuries. In fact, Radiocarbon dating at the University of Zurich indicated that the seeds dated from between 155 BC to 64 AD. Fascinating to think that these seeds were well over 2000 years old.  The story goes cold for a period (literally) as these ancient seeds were held in storage for 40 years at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan.  The story could have ended here with seeds stored safely after two millennia.

This all changed in 2005, when Dr. Elaine Solowey from the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies managed to sprout several seeds.  Three of these seeds were subsequently planted at Ketura, in southern Israel.  Unbelievably, eight weeks later, one of the seeds had sprouted, and by June 2008, the tree had nearly a dozen fronds and was nearly 4 ft 7 in tall. By the summer of 2010, the sapling stood about 6 ft 7 in tall.  The plant was given the name "Methuselah" after the longest-lived person listed in the Bible.  It is the only living Judean date palm in the world as these species have been extinct for over 800 years.

In 2005, there was hope that the successful sprouted seed would turn out to be female, for which there was a 50% chance, as then it could give fruit.  As one of the researchers pointed out, “if it's a male, it will just be a curiosity."  

  

The story which started over two millennia earlier in an ancient palace was ruined in March 2011 when Methuselah flowered in March 2011 and despite all the excitement turned out to be male!  At this point, it must have seemed so unfair.  Seeds happened to be kept in a jar, in perfectly dry circumstances for two thousand years in an ancient palace, rescued and stored for forty years in cold storage in university and then brought back to life in a single successful plant which turns out to be male and incapable of fruiting.  If you were writing the script you would have wished a better ending!  However, the story does not end there.  In 2012, someone came up with a plan.  They want to crossbreed the palm with its closest existing relative the Hayani date from Egypt in the hope of generating fruit by 2022. In 2015, Methuselah produced pollen that has successfully pollinated female date palms.

As of 2019, additional Judean date palm seeds have been grown. Thirty-two seeds from locations in the Dead Sea area were planted, and six saplings have survived. Because several seedlings are female, it is hoped that it will be possible to pollinate one or more of the female Judean date palms with the pollen from Methuselah.

This ancient seed could have real practical implications for us all in the future. Sarah Sallon, the head of the project, wants to see if the ancient tree has any unique medicinal properties no longer found in today's date palm varieties. "The Judean date was used for all kinds of things from fertility, to aphrodisiacs, against infections, against tumours," she said. Now, wouldn’t that be the perfect end to a very old and odd story?

"Man is like unto a tree. If he be adorned with fruit, he hath been and will ever be worthy of praise and commendation. Otherwise a fruitless tree is but fit for fire. The fruits of the human tree are exquisite, highly desired and dearly cherished. Among them are upright character, virtuous deeds and a goodly utterance."

Bahá’í Writings

COVID-19 Hurts Hearts

COVID-19 has proved a testing disease that has torn the hearts out of communities worldwide.  There have been wide discrepancies in suffering. Not only in the degree of loss and pain but also in how we respond to this pandemic.  Those doctors and nurses who have seen the virus up close, as in Italy for example, have had to make decisions about who will live and who will die due to a shortage of ventilators.  Elderly and those with immune-compromised systems have been isolated at moments when fear and vulnerability is at its height.  If hospitalized with COVID their loved ones could well not see them again.  Sometimes we do lose the people we love.  It is hard to cope with at the best of times but it is compounded by not being able to be with them as they face death.  Not being able to hold a hand, stroke a brow or whisper words of love it feels a betrayal of seismic proportions.  Even those in the medical world who watch them die, despite all their efforts, the anguish is causing mental strain whose impact will continue in the months or years ahead. 

But whether you have lost a loved one or been treating a dying patient another unbearable anguish is added by those who have experienced neither and speak in tones of hurtful ignorance about what is happening. Misinformation and distortion of facts have compounded an already serious situation.  Especially when used for political or personal agendas rather than the public good. I have been shocked by how hurtful it is to read nonsense in such dire circumstances. 

One understands that since different parts of the world are experiencing different degrees of suffering it is only natural that portions of the human population has remained untouched and are perplexed at all the fuss.   Those who now have no sources of income and are facing poverty and hunger need to be understood and heard in these critical times.    What I cannot understand is the unwillingness to search for truth but to cherry-pick whatever point of view that suits a particular agenda. Never in my life have I blocked so many online friends and family due to them posting dismissive messages about COVID being a hoax, a fantasy.  Having seen the effect of COVID up close I cannot stomach their strange ability to ignore the suffering of so many.  It crosses a line that I never thought would be breached.

I sense we are looking at different worlds and coming to alternative truths.  On one level I know logically that it won’t be until years later will we be able to see clearly what was done right and what were complete mistakes. It is far too early to call such nuances now.  But surely in the face of such suffering, it is the barefaced lack of compassion and humility exhibited that brings gut-wrenching despair.  To all those who have suffered, are suffering or will suffer may you encounter kindness and compassion in these strange days. Meanwhile, may all of us summon up enough courage and patience to be of service to those in need. 

Living in the dark, ugly beyond words but resilient

The naked mole-rat is the size of a mouse and is, one has to admit exceptionally ugly. It is a eusocial animal.  This term describes creatures who live in large colonies with a single breeding female who keeps her subordinates sexually immature. These rats are found in the hot arid regions of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia and live in dark underground tunnels their entire lives. 

They have a dreadful sort of caste system with ‘infrequent workers’ who have considerably larger bodyweight than the ‘frequent workers’. Frequent workers as well as being smaller do twice as much work as infrequent workers. Then, there is a further category ‘the non-workers’ who are the largest mole rats in the colony, bar the Queen. The non-worker group, true to their name, hardly ever dig or transport material. Their role is partly reproductive as they mate with the breeding queen but they also take care of the young. 

The frequent workers are so busy digging and transporting soil and carrying food to the communal nest that they have barely enough time to eat. In fact, as a result, the naked mole-rat has a metabolism that resembles that of an animal on a calorie-restricted diet. This kind of diet is associated with longevity and indeed one of its surprising characteristics is its unusually long lifespan.

Rodents, such as mice of a similar size, rarely last beyond 4 or 5 years but these naked mole-rats live over three decades and are still healthy and fertile in their 30s.  In fact, they actually don’t appear to age at all. Their heart functions, bone density, muscle mass and metabolism all stay healthy despite the passing decades. They have in addition, exceptional resistance to developing cancer. Having observed large numbers of naked mole-rat colonies over many years we have been hard put to find any instances of cancer. No wonder then, the biology of the naked mole-rat is generating an unusual amount of interest in the fight against cancer in humans.

These animals live in stifling tunnels in complete darkness with very low oxygen levels. They dig in soil rich in toxic heavy metals and they eat poisonous tubers and suffer no adverse consequences. But this is the least of their special skills. When their cells are exposed to UV light they suffer no consequences. Even high doses of chemotherapy drugs have no effect on these tough guys. Such resistance to toxins is probably related to why they don’t age. The trick seems to be they have learnt to cope with exceptional levels of cellular damage from a very young age. Instead of avoiding such damage, they have cultivated an unusual ability to stop damaged cells from dividing and multiplying. They put their focus on preventing the multiplication of mutant cells.

They are creatures of the dark who tend to eat their own shit at times. They live in oxygen-deprived stuffy tunnels.  In fact, these guys can survive for five hours in air that contains only 5% oxygen. Perversely, during that oxygen-deprived time, they don’t show any significant signs of distress and continue with their normal activities. Consuming poison and surrounded by toxins these guys stay ever young. They literally are, as tough as old boots. They may look weird but you’ve got to admire their tenacity. The naked mole-rat can even survive 18 minutes without any oxygen at all. It has to be the real definition of a tough guy.

We have a lot to learn from the naked mole-rat. They cope with dark days and their skin does not feel pain.  For humans our risk of dying doubles every eight years after the age of 40. The naked mole-rat experiences no increased risk of dying with age. They may look repulsive but in some ways, they are real superheroes!

At a time, when we are living through difficult days watching humanity suffer from the Covid 19 virus many of us will have to draw on our own resilience and toughness.  Holding our breath at the loss of life and suffering unfolding.  Finding superheroes, in our communities who fight to preserve life in dark and scary days.

These difficult days will pass and all we will remember is how we responded to such tests

 Dear Son,

You asked me some questions last night that really made me think. I’m not sure of the answers but I wanted you to know what I think and why. Then, at least you can make your own decisions in the light of that. Please don’t see this as advice. I wouldn’t presume. But I do care too deeply for you not to respond when you ask.

People do take advantage of other's kindness. Sometimes through thoughtlessness, sometimes because of their own agenda and occasionally because they’re not used to it. Every time it hurts. Especially when you do something in a spirit of kindness and others respond with disdain or just more expectations. They can even respond with anger as if you offered them a smack instead of the hand of friendship. Life is too short to examine all these responses and to understand the why of it. Better by far to move on.

If you are pulling people out of a bad place keep going. Don’t stop to argue with someone who resents that you did them a good turn. Whether they feel small, embarrassed, self-preoccupied, angry or frustrated is neither here nor there. If you did good, it is because it is in you to do so. Don’t expect it in others. They may not have it in their own lives and so cannot give it to others.

Life passes so quickly and good nature can easily be broken on the backs of mean spirits. So, don’t linger. Don’t be taken advantage of, just move on. Everyone you meet will teach you something, if only not to past too near again!

Then there are the tyrants. Those twisted so much that your kindness is not just wasted on them it is bad for them. Kindness to such types empowers and enables them to do even more damage. We have a responsibility not to reward their acts of abuse because the next one they torment needs you to stand firm. You must have the courage, in such circumstances, to hold the line like the 300 Spartans of old. You do this not out of dislike of them but because you know that giving in to a tyrant will merely perpetuate the abuse. At such times I think of all the victims of abuse I have known. Do you remember young George flinching at our table from the sound of a banging van door? In the face of such abuse, I steel myself to screw up my courage within me. What can we do? We are nothing really but, whatever it is we are capable of being at that moment, we must strive to be that. Because on the backs of tiny pebbles the great sea waves crash! We are such pebbles and despite the power of the waves, we remain. Know that long after they have smashed and raged and broken we will remain. We were created to bear and endure. Let them do their worst because we need to focus on doing our very best.

Let’s not be distracted by their activities. We have deeds to do, mighty deeds. Time is short, too short. Life passes by so quickly and the only things we will remember are all those who we love or who loved us. Grab such souls to you. Remember their sweetness and steady your stance. The hordes are coming. Stand fast, dear heart. There is no one I’d rather have at my side in the face of injustice. You have a keen poet’s eye and see to the real heart of things. Trust in such vision, believe the courage that lies within and search for truth always.

These difficult days will pass and all we will remember is how we responded to such tests.  That will be either our lasting regret or our legacy.  Know the importance of such choices.

Thanks for asking, for talking and for being you.