Cold snap
It is sooooo cold i don't remember it being this cold. Not in November. To think that we'll have to go through another three months of this. Alright if you're Norwegian, but we Irish are much much less committed to anything, and that includes the seasons.
It's funny now, reading the editorial in The Village. This Private Eye cum The Economist publication here. There is a fair amount of breast beating and casting about for blame. In this anything and everyone is fair blame. Our colonial history, which we thought we had escaped, but no. The new colonisers, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, etc - we are still in thrall to them. Ourselves, yes, the Irish are a profligate, ephemeral, idiotic race, akin to the grasshopper who played the extravagant property fiddle instead of being sensible and investing in a sustainble, ethical economy.
I was saying to a friend, its not too late. It is possible to have an economy without money. An economy which relies on networks and in kind. How come people never talk about LETS or the local currency. They can do this. They can get off the wheel. They can have local money, used in local shops and regenerate the economy. It's really simple. They even have websites that tell you how to do this.
But i suppose that means taking responsibility, and it is much less hard work wailing and gnashing your teeth than putting in place a local economic system. Perhaps i'll try that with the school next year. It should be really good fun.
The snow hasn't helped either. It seems that not only has there been snow there has also been lightning! Lightning and snow. Can it GET any better?
I am actually quite sick and tired of this reincarnation. I was sent reading material about reincarnation and i have decided that there is no real basis to think that it might exist. I don't believe in it. I don't think it is necessary to believe in it. It is nice to have three glasses of wine and talk about it, but in my opinion, it is like trying to speculate how the world was created. These phenomenological posturings are pointless. They are of point when you are trying to control something - like a narrative, or people - but if you are trying to live life in a way which is present and meaningful, then they really are side orders.
What do i mean? I mean that it is more important to be doing the laundry so that your children have clean clothes to wear than spending three hours discussing subjectivity. I mean that it is more important to be helping out a friend than it is to be pondering the possibility of another life before birth. I mean it is more important to be kind and compassionate than it is to be clever and have a good argument.
I mean that whether we have a life before or after death is not necessary to one living and good life here and now. Reincarnation for me is to escape the wheel of suffering here and now. To not be reborn into the same mistake over and over again. Now. To understand why i am suffering and to rectify that. I usually find that it is rectified by being kind and compassionate and i find it really difficult to be kind and compassionate to people who annoy me. Hence my current quest to understand show offs.
I believe in a spirit and a soul, but i don't really care where it comes from nor where it is going to. Particularly since i am not going to remember nor have i remembered much of life before and after birth or death.
What is also interesting is that Steiner arrives to reincarnation by THINKING about it i.e. i don't really think that he knew about reincarnation in the same way that he knew about the different parts of the soul. Plus reincarnation is the doctrine of an extremely unjust and abusive system - the caste system. I have arrived at a point in my life where the fuzzy edges of existence or non existence no longer trouble me. It is the sharp focus of the thinge in front of me that is most important.
Who knows - in twenty years time when i'm a little closer to the exit, i might think about it a bit more then. But until evidence presents itself to me, i am not going believe it.
Last night i had a reall weird dream. I dreamt i was in a haunted house. Usually when i dream i know i am dreaming, but this time i wasn't so sure. The house was like something out of a place i played in childhood. It was like a village house, a kampung house, but it was also on what appeared to be a construction site. And i had a child to look after, but it was dangerous, so i was worried. The child was sometimes there, and sometimes not, but my cousin Mark was there, although he didn't look like himself, and the haunting took the form of doors opening and closing. We were listening to ghost stories, when the ghost in the house manifested itself. It was a lot like the ghost encounter than Wayne told us about a week ago. Except it wasn't as dramatic.
But it was still scary. I found myself getting really spooked out. Then someone said that we had to get ready to go to a party. It was one of those really exhausting dreams. I have tried to get lucid in these dreams, but this does not really work, because whenever i say i am now going to be lucid, i wake up. And i know i am awake because i eventually say, i am going to open my eyes and i do.
Anyway, lucid dreams are pointless. A bit like reincarnation. Nice to think about, but ultimately not very helpful in getting things done. Except if it inspires you of course. And makes you a mint.
It's funny now, reading the editorial in The Village. This Private Eye cum The Economist publication here. There is a fair amount of breast beating and casting about for blame. In this anything and everyone is fair blame. Our colonial history, which we thought we had escaped, but no. The new colonisers, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, etc - we are still in thrall to them. Ourselves, yes, the Irish are a profligate, ephemeral, idiotic race, akin to the grasshopper who played the extravagant property fiddle instead of being sensible and investing in a sustainble, ethical economy.
I was saying to a friend, its not too late. It is possible to have an economy without money. An economy which relies on networks and in kind. How come people never talk about LETS or the local currency. They can do this. They can get off the wheel. They can have local money, used in local shops and regenerate the economy. It's really simple. They even have websites that tell you how to do this.
But i suppose that means taking responsibility, and it is much less hard work wailing and gnashing your teeth than putting in place a local economic system. Perhaps i'll try that with the school next year. It should be really good fun.
The snow hasn't helped either. It seems that not only has there been snow there has also been lightning! Lightning and snow. Can it GET any better?
I am actually quite sick and tired of this reincarnation. I was sent reading material about reincarnation and i have decided that there is no real basis to think that it might exist. I don't believe in it. I don't think it is necessary to believe in it. It is nice to have three glasses of wine and talk about it, but in my opinion, it is like trying to speculate how the world was created. These phenomenological posturings are pointless. They are of point when you are trying to control something - like a narrative, or people - but if you are trying to live life in a way which is present and meaningful, then they really are side orders.
What do i mean? I mean that it is more important to be doing the laundry so that your children have clean clothes to wear than spending three hours discussing subjectivity. I mean that it is more important to be helping out a friend than it is to be pondering the possibility of another life before birth. I mean it is more important to be kind and compassionate than it is to be clever and have a good argument.
I mean that whether we have a life before or after death is not necessary to one living and good life here and now. Reincarnation for me is to escape the wheel of suffering here and now. To not be reborn into the same mistake over and over again. Now. To understand why i am suffering and to rectify that. I usually find that it is rectified by being kind and compassionate and i find it really difficult to be kind and compassionate to people who annoy me. Hence my current quest to understand show offs.
I believe in a spirit and a soul, but i don't really care where it comes from nor where it is going to. Particularly since i am not going to remember nor have i remembered much of life before and after birth or death.
What is also interesting is that Steiner arrives to reincarnation by THINKING about it i.e. i don't really think that he knew about reincarnation in the same way that he knew about the different parts of the soul. Plus reincarnation is the doctrine of an extremely unjust and abusive system - the caste system. I have arrived at a point in my life where the fuzzy edges of existence or non existence no longer trouble me. It is the sharp focus of the thinge in front of me that is most important.
Who knows - in twenty years time when i'm a little closer to the exit, i might think about it a bit more then. But until evidence presents itself to me, i am not going believe it.
Last night i had a reall weird dream. I dreamt i was in a haunted house. Usually when i dream i know i am dreaming, but this time i wasn't so sure. The house was like something out of a place i played in childhood. It was like a village house, a kampung house, but it was also on what appeared to be a construction site. And i had a child to look after, but it was dangerous, so i was worried. The child was sometimes there, and sometimes not, but my cousin Mark was there, although he didn't look like himself, and the haunting took the form of doors opening and closing. We were listening to ghost stories, when the ghost in the house manifested itself. It was a lot like the ghost encounter than Wayne told us about a week ago. Except it wasn't as dramatic.
But it was still scary. I found myself getting really spooked out. Then someone said that we had to get ready to go to a party. It was one of those really exhausting dreams. I have tried to get lucid in these dreams, but this does not really work, because whenever i say i am now going to be lucid, i wake up. And i know i am awake because i eventually say, i am going to open my eyes and i do.
Anyway, lucid dreams are pointless. A bit like reincarnation. Nice to think about, but ultimately not very helpful in getting things done. Except if it inspires you of course. And makes you a mint.
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