BLOG 127: A very British festival

“The truth is incontrovertible... ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.” Winston Churchill

Is there ANYTHING that makes me madder than IGNORANCE!!!

If I have to hear one more stupid person say they are not doing Halloween because it is an 'AMERICAN FESTIVAL'. I will scream. How ignorant is that! It is so true that if you don't know your past you are making an idiot of yourself in your present.

Halloween... is OURS. The dressing up. The defacing peoples property if they don't give you treats. The lanterns made of carved veg lit up by candles. The bonfires. The celebration of the dead. The ghoulish masks.

OURS. OURS. OURS.

And it has been from about the late iron age (100-50 BC). The Celts (as far as we know) were the first to start this nonsense, and it was continued by the Romans, though into the Christian period right up to today.

We've been Halloweening since the world was flat. And I can't believe that so many of us Brits are letting this weekend pass us by as we mistakenly think that it's one more insidious bit of US culture taking us over. Is there anything more limiting than NOT knowing your own history?! Like I said IGNORANCE makes me mad!!!

The festival of the dead started life in the UK as the pagan Celtic festival known as Samhain. When the Romans turned up in AD 43 they merged it with their beliefs and when they converted to Christianity in AD200, the mixed up festival stayed with them. It's principal colours were orange to signify the autumn harvest and black as a nod to the dead. The three days between 31st October and 2nd November pagan and Christian celebrations intertwined in a fascinating way and is a perfect example of superstition struggling with religious belief.

In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church made 1st November a church holiday to honour all the saints. From Medieval times (1066 - 1485) through to the 19th century, 31 October was celebrated as the eve of All Saints Day and was known as All Hallows Eve This increasingly became a time when people focused on the souls that were in purgatory (Catholics believed that this was a place where souls are temporarily punished for moderate sins before moving on to heaven). From the 19th Century to the present day, 31st October has increasingly acquired a reputation as a night on which ghost, witches, and fairies, are especially active.

The Celts being pagan believed that evil spirits came with the long hours of winter darkness. They believed that on that night the barriers between our world and the spirit world were at their weakest and therefore spirits were most likely to be seen on earth. They also built bonfires to frighten the spirits away, and feasted and danced around the fires. The first signs of these beliefs merging with the new religion (Christianity) was when it started to be believed that these fires brought comfort to the souls in purgatory and people started to prayed these souls as they held burning straw up high.

The fires of Halloween burned the strongest in Scotland and Ireland,. Of course this is no surprise as this is where Celtic influence is strongest in the UK, although to be fair this practice was still on in some of the northern counties of England until the early years of the last century. So we southerners had to do something about it. We moved the bonfires to 5^th of November to remind the rest of the UK that it is governed from London... therefore the collapse of the 'gunpowder plot' of 1605 became the new date. King James ordered that people should have a great bonfire on the night on 5^th November to mark the day one of the gang (the watchman Guy Fawkes) was arrested.

But even with the bonfires gone,other customs remained...

Many places in England combined Halloween with Mischief Night (celebrated on 4 November), when boys played all kinds of practical jokes on their neighbours. They changed shop signs, took gates off their hinges, whitewashed doors, and tied door latches. Children would be bribed with food or money in order to spare the more nervous of householders from this mischief.

The ninth century European custom, of souling became very popular in the UK. This was where people would make house calls begging for soul cakes. It was believed that even strangers could help a soul's journey to heaven by saying prayers, so, in exchange for a cake they promised to pray for the donors' deceased relatives.

Less Christian, as it has strong Celtic roots, was the tradition of dressing up. The Celts strongly believed that on All Hallows the dead returned to earth for the night. In order not to be recognised by a ghost that may hold a grudge against them, people would wear grotesque masks when they left their homes after dark, so that if the ghosts would mistake them for fellow ghouls.

Jack o'lanterns were hung outside homes and in windows to ward of ghosts. These ghoulish faces were carved into turnips and a candle placed with in. These lanterns are so called after the Irish Celt legend of a man called Jack who could not enter heaven because he was a miser. He could not enter hell either as he had played tricks on the devil. He was ordered to wander the earth with his lantern till judgement day and any undead who associated with him suffered the same fate. Thus the lanterns were thought to make ghosts believe Jack was present in the home.

Yes, as you can see Halloween has been an important part of life in the UK dating WAY before John Cabot bumped into Canada in 1497... WAY before America was named by Martin Waldsemuller and Ringman in1507.. and certainly WAY before the American Independence was declared in 1776.

Americans make a big deal about Halloween. But lets face facts, they make a big deal about EVERYTHING! If the world were a family they would be the toddler... they are a YOUNG country only a few centuries old...OF COURSE they are gonna make a big deal about something we've been doing for YEARS! It's like a child walking “Mama! Look at ME!!!”. So them have their moment... and applaud their efforts.

BUT... trouble is, like in many a family sometimes the youngest just happens to do something really well. In fact they do it with more colour than their predecessors. Sometimes the baby of the bunch is just a great showman. But please... don't think just because someone does something in a big way that suddenly the original idea is de-facto owned by them.

You see... because they put on a great show...doesn't make the script THEIRS.

It's OUR heritage too... the tricking and treating, the dressing up, the veg with a candle in it.

So please... go and enjoy it... and claim one back.. for queen and country. We're NOT the 51^st state...Yet!

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BLOG 126: DANGEROUS E's

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.” ~Dale Carnegie , American Writer and Lecturer extraordinaire

When I was a kid, feelings were dead easy. Feeling meant touching something. When you're under 6 you are certainly aware that there was a limit to what you were allowed to touch and you were always being told not to touch this or that... and you had the idea that the reason why this missive was much repeated was that those in the know feared that in your inexperienced hands... something would get broken.

But then you grow up and the word changes... suddenly feelings get used in a different context:

“This house is the one. It just feels so right”

“I have a great feeling about this project”

“I still have feelings for him, but I don't love him any more”

“Talking to my sister is over – I just don't feel the same way about her”

Suddenly feelings are no longer clumsy inexperienced paws on fragile merchandise, but some kind of scale by which we measure our commitments by.

These are not thoughts or opinions rising from the process of the mind, these are sensations arising from the heart... reactions if you like. These reactions cause the sensation of happiness, or sadness. They can just as easily make us excited, bored, anxious, embarrassed, miserable, connected...to name but only a few. These are reactions are the things that make one man's meat another's poison. These are the truly dangerous E's... Emotions.

Emotions don't plug into any values or common sense. They simply are a response to what is happening around you to you... and they are completely unique to you. No one else is exactly like you so no one else is going to have exactly the same emotional response. Where this becomes dangerous is when we don't recognise that our response is not an opinion or a lucid thought and try to apply logic to emotion. Like we can control them. (And before you start claiming you can... you can't best you can do is suppress... and that's an express ticket to 'Hey, I'm living in my own nightmares-land'). Ever tried to make yourself feel happy when you actually feel sad? Doesn't work -does it? Nah, you can't control emotions or make them go away. They demand to be acknowledged and or expressed.

Ah... wasn't it all so much easier when we were little and the only feeling you had to worry about the one that lead to something being broken and your parents getting annoyed.

But then it's really not all that different with the dangerous E's. Expressing them inappropriately will lead to something being broken...like another person's heart... and yes, in that circumstance letting down those for whom you care will result in them getting annoyed.

We do have a responsibility to share our dangerous E's with people lovingly and responsibly. “You ALWAYS shout, you are right up in my face and I feel it's just a matter of time before you just lose it and do something you'll regret” … now that has to be the most confrontational way of sharing your emotions. It's probably heartfelt and true up to a point... but if you are on the receiving end of that you'd be STRAIGHT on the defensive. And pretty fairly too, seeing that it is highly unlikely that you ALWAYS raise your voice, and that the implication of acceleration to violence is so far unfounded. Maybe something like “I don't like it when you shout, it makes me feel unsafe – I'd prefer us to be able to talk without the shouting” True that is equally uncomfortable to hear from a loved one, but at least it separates the person from the behaviour and paves the path to resolution of conflict.

Dangerous as our E's may be they are jolly useful. If we can express them with care, then at least people know what is going on inside. And that has to be better than being left to guess what the cold silence and general grumpiness is supposed to signify!

To be loved, valued, appreciated or even just to be allowed to make our own decisions means that we have to demonstrate an ability to share our dangerous E's... it seems this is the way that we actually get to know each other better. The bugger is that we are social animals and do not thrive in isolation. Much as we sometimes wish we could just stay in our pants till our uncomfortable E's went away..they tend not to until outwardly expressed. It is the very expressing of emotion that draws us into relationships with others, it is the backbone of friendship.

It's only when we communicate in this way that others can help fill our needs:

• for worth or value

• for freedom to make our own decisions

• for significance (to know we make a difference)

• for love and to give love

Trouble with all this is that because communicating E's gets us all the goodies on the list... it s sooooooooo tempting to make it anyone else's responsibility but YOURS to make you feel good. Spill the dangerous E's and force others to satisfy all your emotional needs all the time.

What a quandry...

A) Bottle it all up

True you'll bother no one and won't become anyone's emotional millstone, Equally true you'll become a repressed nut nut who wanders about like a pressure cooker on high gas. You also run the risk of having to be second guessed... and without you providing the emotional answers...people have a habit of filling in the blanks themselves...with just about anything.

B) Let it all out

True you'll be more relaxed and less ratty for all the unburdening. Equally having access to your every high, low and middle ground your life is a wide open book. You also run the risk of being viewed as insecure and seeking validation … people will learn not to trust your judgements if you appear not to deal with anything internally.

I guess the path to true enlightenment lies somewhere in the middle as with all things.

Dangerous E's... or just plain straight Feelings as they use to be called. Confusing stuff...

I think back to a simpler time and the pre-school me... always being told to keep my grubby little paws in check less I got hold of something we couldn't afford and broke it. Most of the time my hands would train out of the pushchair lot because I needed wanted or desired any of the things I got hold of, but because I was bored, or wanted to know how they felt, or simply I got hold of things because they were in reach. Some things did get broken... but in the main... most things didn't. Maybe things haven't changed so much.

Maybe after all feelings are still fragile merchandise being handled by clumsy inexperienced paws, still some kind of scale by which I at least measure my commitments by.

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XXX )

BLOG 125: FALLING SHORT

“The greater danger lies in not setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low... and achieving our mark” Michelangelo, Italian sculptor, painter, architect, engineer and poet.

You know, it IS totally possible to believe in something and still fail to live up to it. And you know what... that's OKAY. In this "too fast to blame" culture that we have created for ourselves, it has become the general rule to not set your aim high, to not have belief in the possibilities … in case you fail. Because if you don't achieve what you set out to, if you don't live up to all you believe in 24/7... then you a fantasist or a hypocrite.

I'm often told that it's all well and good aiming for our possibilities in theory, but reality of doing so is not always a sweet experience. It is clear that the trouble with what is possible is that it is not always probable and to just aim for the possibilities exposes you to risk of being accused of living in cloud cuckoo land or spouting beliefs that your life doesn't always reflect.

Therefore it's easier to stay in the middle management job than AIM to be the entrepreneur, it's easier to say we're agnostic than AIM to live up to any religion. It's less dangerous... isn't it?

Actually no.

Nothing cold be further from the truth. It is much more dangerous to be aware of falling short than failing after aiming high. (Unless of course you are a simpleton, then you would be oblivious to your own short comings... but if you are reading JaxWorld …as webscan seems to show zero simpleton profile among the 18,974 active readers... then evidence suggests you are not). We really should aim for what we believe possible, cause funny enough it's the way we are SUPPOSED to be. Humanity has come a long long way from the cave and the lion cloth... striving for what has not been proven to work, taking a risk and falling flat on our faces a few times before we get there... that's what we do.

Not that you'd believe that is the case when you listen to some of my friends talk. It's worrying really when you consider that these are intelligent people with a few years of life experience behind them. More than one or two were around to blaze a trail in the 1980's but it seems the fires have ebbed. All the talk is all of defeat or consolidation.

A friend recently advised me that one should only try what one can really achieve or else it would be 'like Icarus attempting to fly...romantic and heroic...yet foolish and fatal.”

What utter poppy cock!

I'm no historian but at a wild stab, mankind did not start of with insulated homes, plasma TVs, nice cars, foreign holidays and many expressive art forms. Trial and error had to make these things possible... by trying out what was unachievable. There must have been more than a few attempts of each of these things, we now so blithely take for granted, before they became achievable. So I guess en route to success some who trod the path got to taste the bitter bile of defeat... but in the end the results are now enjoyed by many. And yeah Icarus made a proper mess of flying... but thankfully it didn't put mankind off as we've enjoyed quite a few flights since!

It's a less clearer path with belief structures... but the same amount of courage is required. My friend was quick to add that belief structures are “responsible for all the grief and strife of humanity... just look at all the unrest they cause”.

Again with the poppy cock!

Again I'm no expert in the field but people just seem to be wired to want suffrage – the right expression political, social or religious. No matter what it is, I'll bet the path to set of beliefs to inspire or aspire did not start out with left or right, urban or rural, cross or burqa . The need to belong drove the creation of these orders... by trying out structures that provide frameworks that people can build their lives around. Of course people are individuals so no belief structure is EVER going to be one size fits all. No one belief structure is ever going to provide all the answers or even ask all the questions. I guess en route to popularity there may be many that just did not prove practicable … but in the end the surviving structures benefit many. (One only has to look at last century for popular beliefs that just couldn't last the course!) And yeah the road to suffrage is a major route to civil unrest and in many cases war... but thankfully it hasn't put off mankind as all the best countries to live in offer universal suffrage to all adult citizens.

Thing is mankind is at its best when it aims high. Falling short of those high aims nearly always comes at a cost. Failure hurts. Sometimes failure means lives are lost. But ALWAYS even when we as a species fail... out of the experience of failing... we learn. Sometimes we have to learn the same lesson over and over again before we realise that particular route will always get us that result... but we learn.

I know there is a global recession (that the gets massaged out of the headlines with some clever maths from time to time). I for one have not emerged unscathed as regular readers would know. Economic crisis or not there is NO excuse for aiming low. This is not the time to be blaming or consolidating... this is the time for invention and effort and being brave. It is a time to aim high... as high our imaginations let us.But good times or bad, boom or bust we should be looking upwards anyway.

I hate the idea that some of us are so scared of the possibility of failure that we don't try for the higher goal. That we admit defeat before we begin and justify it with a load of poppycock about it being “For the greater good”. To purposely not try for the possibility of success is to settle for the certainty of gaining nothing, of learning nothing.

I know we do it to be safe – especially from our critics. After all who wants to be branded as the person who fell short? But to never aim for the ultimate possibility is not an escape from failure. It is a certain route to the torments of 'what if'... the certain reward for aiming too low and achieving the achievable. We are BETTER than that.

Really WE are.

If we believe something is possible... we owe it to ourselves as people, as nations, as a species to try not for what the probable outcome may be but for what the possible outcome COULD be.

NEVER PUT BETTER THAN IN JUNE 1968:

“Some men see things as they are and say WHY? He saw things that have not yet come to be … and said WHY NOT?” Edward Kennedy eulogising Shaw at his brother Robert's funeral.

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BLOG 124: CHILLAX

“All mankind's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet place alone” Blaise Pascal French Philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, thought to be one of the greatest minds western history.

CHILL OUT!!! How often do we hear those two words... and how often do we not do exactly that! Such a pity as I truly believe that the inability of humanity to chill out is probably our greatest failing. (This belief is not revolutionary, old Blaise Pascal was saying much the same in the 1600's).

It's not difficult to understand that pausing helps one understand where one is, and more importantly where one needs to go next. And yet we just don't seem to allow ourselves the time to do this. It's almost as if we believe that in taking time to take stock, we would somehow lose our place in the forward march... that we may be trampled by the rest of our species unrelenting surge forward. Which of course is total and utter hog wash! WHY would anyone wish to keep pursuing a path without evaluating if the path that one is on is even the right one?

It is a liberating experience to just sit somewhere on your own and be quiet. Actually not only liberating but illuminating. It is only by sitting quietly we can appreciate how busy (appropriately or otherwise) we actually are. It is only by not propping everything up for a moment that we can see if it can stand or fall on it's own merit. It is only by not saying everything that comes into our heads for a moment that we can see if it ever needed to be said. Clarity often comes not by endless debate, discussion or action but just by taking a pause.

So many of the actions we choose to take happen because it seemed like the logical next step. The Domino Effect. The domino in motion WILL fall on the next which in turn will fall upon the next infinitum. A domino doesn't go sideways or back ways, or up in the air... the logical place to fall is forward. It's the pace that dictates the movement. Dominoes once in motion cannot pause, they just do what is predictable. Which is fine if you are a domino. But chance are you're not! (Web scan didn't reveal too many rectangular tiles covered in dots among the 18,974 active readers!) So given that like me you are a person, wouldn't it be great to make decisions that are creative, individual ... and above all right? It's a proven fact that we make our best decisions when we pause, regroup then act.

Funny enough, we seem unable to trust this obvious piece of logic. It all seems just a bit tree hugging hippy-like to chill - surely action is the only way to get things done. We feel that if we just keep on moving everything will work out, that a good result can only be obtained by action.

Of course we know that we are not infallible. But we live our lives like we were driving with the sat nav on - so much more expedient than parking up, getting out the car and looking at the landscape. Who has time to stop and drink in the landscape when we have a destination to get to? So on the odd occasion that we do feel hesitant about the next step, we simply just turn our head to the person next to us and ask their advice.

It is a stunning fact that we somehow think that the answer is somewhere if only we know who to talk to about it. You assume that for an objective point of view one must go outside yourself. But stop. There is someone who has known you from fertilisation onward... this person has a vested interest in ensuring the best for you. But do you ever give this person a chance? NO. But who is this person you ask? Well ding bat it is YOU. It sounds almost too simple to be true but by finding somewhere to sit down and be quiet... you get to hear something you can't hear normally. Your inner voice. By being quiet, you begin to hear it... and learn to trust it, and surprisingly find out that it's prompts provide directions to the answer you need.

But chilling out isn't just for finding solutions to life's dilemmas. How many times do you hear the words.. be creative? To function in the modern world one must have new ideas... one must create. Despite the thinking of 1980's (where sitting around in a room shouting random ideas became vogue), the route to true creativity comes through silencing the chattering mind. Empty your head and think of nothing. Thinking simply is cogitating things that have happened already. By just chilling out you allow the mind to create something new.

Actually while you enjoy sitting around being empty headed... chilling out gives you the kind of rest that sleep only wishes it could. Chilling out is really good for your health. When you chill, you are totally concious but in a state that allows the body to give your mind a chance. The rhythm of your body slows, the drawing of breath slows, the pounding of your heart slows. This is inner silence, YOU letting do and letting be. More that relax... it's Chillax as the teenagers say! Sit down and be quiet - then go back to rushing about – then sit down and be quiet. It's a natural rhythm like waves on a beach... in fact like all of nature... active-inactive-active-inactive. It's actually how things that succeed work. Anything that breaks this law of nature eventually goes into premature permanent non-activity.

The world really does not crash around ones ears if you retreat to your quiet place. All hell does not break lose the moment you take your eye of the ball. In fact chilling out allows you to not only see the ball clearly but also your options... catching may not be your only one. Honestly I don't hold with all that hippy dippy stuff. Chilling out does sound a little tree hugging hippieish I know. BUT I really do think that if we all made time for just chilling out, we may make better choices than some the ones we make whilst we are at pace. You'd have never find Isaac Newton hugging a tree... but you could have sure find him chilling out under one... and look what happened as a consequence of that!

Chilling out creates possibilities. It widens vision. It clarifies hearing. It makes people nicer and more aware of their place in the bigger picture. It's also VERY VERY good for you.

So try it PLEASE.

Before you knee-jerk into the next action... pause.

Chillax.

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