Spring has truly sprung!

This must be one of the best springtime experiences we have had in England for many many years. Extensive sunshine and the blossom on the trees, has been the fullest I can recall. And what a joy it was to take our four grandchildren to Ness Botanic Gardens on the Wirral (North West England). They had an amazing time frolicking in the blossom, and it was just as much fun for us watching!

David Miskimin

I saw a TV programme the other night about a young single mum who gave her young son an Argos catalogue before Xmas. Guess what? He ‘chose’ a list of toys and she went into debt to buy them. She had to declare the equivalent of bankruptcy after being unable to pay the £600 bill.

So who created her son’s reality? And her’s?  

Forget the material stuff for a moment. What would happen if you dispensed with Newtonian cause-and-effect physics? This 400 year old theory underpins media reality, as does the model of a our bodies as machines.

Suppose we could influence ‘reality’ to a level unimaginable? Just like da Vinci, Galileo, Newton [in his day], Tesla, Einstein and contemporary innovators.

Just exactly what is fixed for ever? Almost nothing. So your reality is co-created with God, the universe, source, or consciousness or whatever you choose to call it.

And what kind of reality do you want? And for your children…

Jack Stewart

You let go, you move on.

The only people who want you to spend the rest of your life feeling guilty are doing the same to themselves.

There is nothing of value in continuously beating yourself up. When did any creative solution ever emerge from doom & gloom?

Look around. What are the kids like whose parents are always beating themslves up?  Good role models?

Shut down the scapegoat factory, forgive yourself. Set the best example.

Jack Stewart

That’s Just the Way It Is

Some things will never change

That’s Just the Way It Is

But don’t you believe them….

 When I was young, long before 1986, my parents let me have a lot of freedom compared to today’s kids. Like every other kid, I made mistakes, got into scrapes, broke the odd bone, and acquired the odd trauma and beliefs I would need in later life to release.

 Did you know that the number of passengers using UK airport terminals rose to 241 million in 2007. This compares to 7 million in 1957.

 Have you ever had an X-Ray? Doesn’t the radiologist stand behind a screen to protect themselves from the rays? What does that suggest to you?

My local airport has introduced ‘scanners’. They use X-rays. The operator stands behind a screen. To protect your privacy? To protect themselves from the X-rays perhaps? Not everyone has to go through them. But if you are spotted travelling whilst Asian, look a bit shifty, or are anxious at airports, you might have to be ‘screened.’ It’s your choice of course, but if you refuse, you won’t be able to fly.

Our generation, and our children’s generation, are on the brink of leaving an irreversible legacy for the next generation. We are a nation of suspects.

Does your child, or grandchild, need a tag or chip to protect them from the invisible army of ‘bogey men’? Why bother with a cumbersome tag, why not have your baby ‘chipped’ from birth. S/he won’t need the X-rays, can avoid the long queues and be continuously monitored by ‘the authorities’ if they fit the profile.

 Remember Tony Blair? Whether you agree with him or not, he told lies. Don’t all governments tell lies?

 Some things will never change. That’s Just the Way It Is.

Will you let your child believe them?

Jack Stewart

After the talk, our hosts took us to a Greek restaurant, and we listened to a couple of Greeks singing traditional songs and playing [wonderfully] guitar and bouzouki. Our hosts, and most of the diners, got up and did their versions of Greek dances. Fabulous.

Elsewhere in the city, we saw the creeping, toxic effect of a universal culture. Teenagers eating fast ‘food’, clothed like American college students, and adopting ‘cool’ [arrogant, zombied, brain-dead] expressions.

Every culture has its good points. For reasons too long to go into, Greek culture is one I adore. There are many aspects of British culture I like. Ditto Russian, Asian, Native American and Irish culture. Contemporary, commercial US culture, that which saturates the media and every aspect of our waking lives, has no tradition, no roots, no substance. It is manufactured, corrosive and has a dangerous agenda.

 As a parent, what can you do? Ban or sensor fast food, [c] rap, gum, violence, ‘celebrity’, vacant expressions and Hannah Montana? We all know this is the quickest route to turn kids on to it.

 How about embracing what’s good about all cultures? Multi-culturalism has become a cliché, a mantra. The best of it can inspire and educate, the worst of it, divide.

 You cannot escape the creeping paralysis induced by all this by switching off the television, or not reading papers. It is in your supermarket, in your trolley, on the street, in your kid’s heads, and on most people’s lips.

 I no more want a Billy Burger ‘joint’ at the Taj Mahal, the Parthenon, the Arc de Triomphe, Stonehenge or the Giant’s Causeway than I do the aspartame, MSG, fat, sugar and salt in our kids’ bodies. Or the images of ultra-violence, or lyrics of some phobic song in their heads.

How is reality created in your child’s mind? I think you know. What will you do about it? Because they are worth it.

 Jack Stewart