The Great Escape

it's a tricky time of year at work, and remains so until the end of March, so opportunities for coherent or creative thought are few and far between. Ironically it is also the time of year when my itchy feet are at their itchiest; however this year, with the ongoing 'economic crisis', it appears I may have competition. 

This glorious item from The Times yesterday ('Dig for Equanimity'!), reminding me of how tasty my grandad's home grown veggies were, picked in the morning and eaten for lunch (for some reason my own home grown food didn't taste as good); then today there is this in the Guardian, which makes perfect sense- how egalitarian is  the idea of 'guerilla gardening', although I might draw the line at producing food in a cemetery; and finally, most interesting of all, the forthcoming BBC series 'Monty Halls' Great Escape' follows the adventures of a man from Bristol who tries life as a crofter on the west coast of Scotland for six months. The quote from our erstwhile adventurer at the end of a 'Radio Times' article on the programme this week will doubtless send disaffected folk fleeing to the hills in search of living their dream(s):

'If there's one thing I'd like viewers to come away with, it's this: live the dream. People put off their dreams too easily,when they should just do it. When you're on your deathbed, you won't look back and be proud of your achievements; you'll just regret what you didn't do'.

If everyone is intent on fleeing the cities, maybe I will be able to afford that riverside flat with views of Battersea Power Station after all...

Pondering, this week....

mostly pondering rather than typing cos last night I cut my hand open whilst cleaning out the dispenser drawer in my washing machine, managing to turn the machine on in the process, and jumping so much at unexpected imminent electrocution, I forgot to remove hand from the drawer before running away....

anyhow. A thought from Peter Owen Jones' excellent 'Around the World in 80 Faiths' made me think this week. Playing 'catch up' before the BBC remove earlier programmes from iplayer, I was struck by a comment on one of the earlier programmes. Referring to a country visited, he said 'it may be the most religious country on earth, but it also the least spiritual'.

Question of the week, therefore: if it's possible to be religious without being spiritual (no argument there!), is it possible to be spiritual without being religious (ie officially religiously affiliated)? My initial answer would be 'yes, of course', until thinking a little deeper, and wondering if being very spiritual would waken a hunger for such things as rites, ceremonies, communions, sacraments, (define them as you wish) shared with others in a communal experience, which would then, by definition, lead a person to an 'organised religion'. 

It could be argued that participation in such services or communal events can detract from the spirituality of the rite or ceremony being observed; obviously all sorts of distractions, from mobile phones to unsettled children, to uninspiring sermons or talks can do that. Anyway, it's just a question going round in my head amongst all the other stuff stuck in there.

Crisis? What crisis?

The Today programme said it best, this week: when calm beats angry.

I link, above, to their item on the subject, and have resolved, in any future time of crisis, to try to emulate the pilot rather than the film star.

jolly cheering news.

Love the attitude. If you can't beat them, join them. But then, our chief weapon is surprise....

http://uk.youtube.com/montypython

who would have thought, thirty years ago, we'd be sitting here watching Python on personal computers via an internet?