This is the day that the Lord has made – we will rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:24

So who was this chap David? A shepherd? What kind of shepherd would know about anything really?   There is more to David than meets the eye or at least the casual glance. He was a king and a talented poet rolled into one who lived a far from blameless life.   If you want to know more, read a summary here. For discussion on who actually wrote the psalms, here is a scholarly article by James Hamilton.

 So here we are on bank holiday Monday.  Nothing local going on. I arose at 9.30. We thought of going to visit the American museum in Bath where they have a huge LEGO exhibition but we will do that tomorrow.

I must avoid getting side-tracked by depressing news e.g. the financial failure of local authorities.
Britain’s local government network has been shaken by a string of financial collapses in the past two years, starting with Slough and followed by Croydon, Thurrock and most recently Woking, which announced a deficit of £1.2bn in June after a risky investment spree.

So, back to the psalm again, I’m quite happy to rejoice but ‘being glad’  I’m not so sure about

The word glad comes from the Old English word glæd, which means bright, shining, or cheerful. It is related to the words gleam and glitter, which also have the sense of brightness or sparkle. Some synonyms of glad are happy, delighted, pleased, joyful, and cheerful. Some antonyms of glad are sad, unhappy, displeased, sorrowful, and miserable.

I can be glad because it is not subject or environmentally sensitive.  I suppose that focusing on any subject is like shining a light on it. We talk about being enlightened, a light amidst the darkness  or a light to lighten the gentiles.   The word light is probably what are the key words in scripture as well as in everyday language so after realising that, what am I going to cast light on?

Do I study the light of others such as watching a video about people who describe their experience of something? I could investigate on my own from first principles but this would take far longer. A huge learning can be achieved by joining the dots, in the phrase of David Icke within his wisely named website is the ‘dot connector’ which is so relevant and yet so difficult.

There is scope for us to think originally 24/7 but maybe this is more easily done during the course of conversation, not alone. However I know there are people who think better on their own free of distraction. If I were with someone who was not on the same wavelength, I would probably find it a mild irritation at a certain stage in the proceedings.

When I look for something in the dark, I do not flash my light in a cursory fashion I look at the matter from many angles. I remember once many years ago when I met Karlheinz Stockhausen  who said round the dinner table that people do not examine a given theme from enough different angles.  I heard him say that 40 years ago but it still sticks in my mind so there is obviously a lesson to learn here.

The example I gave with the American lecturer a couple of days ago shows how I hate pond-skating, jumping around from here to there, and yet I do it myself more often than I would care to admit.  I think it is done out of enthusiasm.

As an example I cite the recent fires in Hawaii.  We must look at

1. what happened from the observers point of view
2. what is claimed to happen from the mainstream media’s point of view
3. what is claimed from the ‘alternative media’s’ point of view
4.  what reason people might have for claiming one cause or another.
5. Are the reporters subject to conflict of interest i.e. who pays their salary?

In other words you cannot say that you understand all about a subject if you have just looked at it from one point of view. It may be that you stick with your point of view because it is comfortable and fits with your world view but that may well be a limitation; we have to tread the uncomfortable path if we want to understand the origin or basis of offered of facts – of whatever action or fact we espouse.

It seems not to be about what we think but how we think. What is our viewpoint?  Why do people have different points of view?     I suggest that there are people who go through life without one single original thought.  I remember the phrase ‘we were born originals, don’t let yourself die a copy’.

Are we afraid to even think originally and say something that other people might not take a liking to?  In other words, are we afraid to use our imagination.  If so, where did this fear come from?  Maybe it is about being rejected by the herd or the majority.  There was a time when to be an outcast meant physical death so do we think of this at a subconscious level.

I do get easily bored in conversation with people when I hear them recycling matters with no new content. I understand that gossip is a way of conveying useful information but can we reach up from time to time and say what if…..    how about….. is xxx possible…. I have challenged people recently and found to my surprise that they respond positively. It’s worth a shot.

There is no question that thinking itself is a dangerous occupation. As we have seen in the last two or three years, people have been killed, ‘suicided’, been sacked from their posts,  been ridiculed,  been harassed, all for saying something that is in many cases demonstrably true.

The doctor who said that the washing of hands would lessen infection and mortality was ridiculed.  The philosopher who said that the earth revolved round the sun (heliocentrism) was ridiculed and worse. Look what happened to him.   Are we prepared to stand up for what we believe?

Back to our topic.

There are things that need to be done such as maintaining our property and  generally doing our duty.

I know someone who used to pick a topic, study it for three months, and then move on to another one but that’s not the way I am built.

Within my daily duty remit is the maintaining of the covid site,  my 5G site and my diary.   These are standards of behavior that I have decided for myself.  Outside that I can choose to educate myself on a new subject,  or consolidate what I already know about a particular subject. There are not enough hours in the day to take on a new subject but I can consider it, if it relates to what I already know and am interested in. In other words it can be a sub topic or adjunct.

For example, my interest in extra terrestrial life  is attached to how human kind behaves and whether we are or have been influenced by ET civilizations of whom by the way there have been 120 examples of visitations to Terra, our planet. See exopolitics.com for more.

I also need to spend some time reading although I do find that when I have completed my tasks it is evening time and there is a bigger temptation to turn on the television. Last night there was a lovely example of slow television on BBC4  where the life of a shepherd in the Lake District was featured. The sheep were being taken down from the high areas to the lower areas to be sheared.  The program lasted 90 minutes, there was very little commentary save short poems and the pictures were allowed to speak for themselves. This, together with very high quality drone work gave us the sense of being there. It reminded me of a similar slow film also on BBC 4 of a trip along the Bath and Kennett canal.

I should also do some physical exercises as well. I know they need only take 10 minutes a day but when I’ve had my breakfast I’m so keen to get on to the computer that I forget these things, no doubt to my  detriment.

So we have the following factors to balance

maintaining physical life

exercising our body

cleaning and maintaining our physical domicile/environment

maintaining our existing priorities / obligations

assisting those who depend upon us

looking out for newer ideas to form an adjunct and an enrichment

taking time out for friends and  recreation

communing with nature

I do not suppose many people manage to balance the whole thing but we can at least be aware that these are factors  to be taken into consideration.

For me, I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day but I expect if there were 36 hours a day I would still fill all the time.   In eternity there is no time which I can see as the ultimate luxury.

So it is already 13:03 and I’ve got to think about lunch. I have spent my time writing these thoughts and for me it has encouraged me to clarify my thinking processes and has therefore been a very valuable exercise. That is why I recommend that everyone should keep a diary and if possible share it electronically. It is a great way of keeping friends and family in touch.

Our lunch. I wish avocado pears would not be so deceptive. There are times you press them and they seem fairly firm but are half rotten inside. We tend to have a large emphasis on salad, cheese, lettuce, good bread, vegetables in season, fruit. As regards timing, I like it when I have 80% of my dietary needs before 3 p.m. at the latest. If I do have any more in the evening I certainly regret it so you could say I go on a mini fast until the next morning. Maybe us older ones have less gastric juice available in the evenings.

…continued..  Social media is too fleeting and therefore insubstantial which is why I recommend good old-fashioned websites. Some are using sub-stack but then I don’t want to monetize.

As with Samuel Pepys’ monumental works  I write because it is in me, as one is motivated to paint a work of art.