Postcard from Croatia
Gostiona Milina. Beach. June. A tyre filled with concrete as the base for a bright, yellow and white parasol catching the onshore breeze. Butterflies of many different kinds flying in from the sea one by one, each seemingly alone in their journey. Sinead O’Connor ‘Nothing compares to you’, playing in the car wash nearby.
I discover that the Painted Lady butterfly takes up to six generations to complete the 9,000 mile round trip from Africa to the Arctic circle. In 2009 it was found that 11 million arrived and 26 million left the UK, flying at 500 metres, up to 30mph!
Referendum voting soon to close…
Approaching Gatwick, one adult girl completely curled up on her seat, seemingly impossible, with her long, bare legs. The couple the other side of us are holding hands as the plane begins to land. Wheels down, raking the sky.
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London 3rd August
Wednesday night, 10:30 a ‘Knife Bloodbath’ a horrific, frenzied, random attack, killing an innocent woman who happened to be close by, and injuring others. A nightingale dies in Russell Square. This murder committed by a Norwegian Somali. Odd that the Leytonstone tube attack was also committed by a Somali, Muhaydin Mire, also with ‘mental health issues’.
But of course, not all Somalis attack people, just as not all people with mental health issues commit violent attacks, far from it. 1 in 4 people have some personal experience of mental ill-health but if they do harm, are overwhelmingly more likely to harm themselves than other people.
See these extracts on violence and mental health from Time to Change and Mind
Compare also the number of homicides (574 for the year ending September 2015) to the number of suicides (6,045 in 2011) recorded for people aged 15 and over (UK).
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RIO 2016
The Olympics have begun, unfortunately to the tune of demonstrations in Rio. People angry at the high cost of hosting the Games, upset the relay, and caused riot police to use tear gas and pepper spray to disperse them.
Only months before, my son was with his ‘Ola Samba’ band having fun abundantly at the carnival and, proposing! 🙂 Ola Brazil!
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In the New Scientist of 5th June (yes, I have a stash of old copies) there’s an interview with the physicist Carlo Rovelli who ‘reflects on how physics is like art that lifts the veil from reality – and how time may be something we create ourselves’
Physics can dream as it searches for the code underlying everything that makes the universe, like the code behind a webpage, the ultimate…the theory of everything.
The same edition also reported the strange fact that many genes go on working up to 48 hours after we’ve ‘died.’
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The Green Man
Not the festival, or the pub, nor the symbol as chimera or grotesque on churches – protecting – but the real, the inner experience of spirit, of a profound connection with nature, the whole of life.
I remember a weekend workshop of men connecting with the Green Man. Coming to a new understanding of what it means to be men on this planet. And there have been times when I’ve felt connected to all that has ever been. As if aware of the roots of DNA, the helices inside our cells connected through generations, to the source of life from which we’ve come – ultimately to the dust of stars that formed the earth, the elements and molecules which make us, shaping gut, muscle, sinew, brain and bone.
And would you not imagine, that connected as we are to each other, to the earth, that we would all seek unity rather than create division?
All being said… it’s a crazy world!
See Fast Train Approaching… and Voices: mental health survivors, carers, therapist, family and friends