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

If you watch television, you will not fail to have noticed that today’s women are obsessed with how they look, how often they can flick their hair, how high the heels are on their shoes and if they can master about six poses and pouts modelled by Posh Spice and Cheryl Cole.

Indeed do not these two represent the highest pinnacle of acheivement?

And if you get fed up with Cheryl Cole’s face on every vertical urban space, there’s always Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Beyonce.  

 The time is ripe for mothers everywhere to become real role models for daughters. Compassion, kindness, inner strength, resilience, serving others, honesty, down-to-earth, intelligence, grace, patience, humility, love…

Or self-obsession, avarice, greed, falseness and talentless irrelevance?

These may be the rantings of a grumpy old man. But who would you like your girls to emulate…?

Whilst no-one should underestimate the corrupting and corrosive power of the media in all its forms, mothers are the unsung heroes of the next generation. Please use your influence wisely.   

Jack Stewart

Jack Stewart

We live in a world of deliberate confusion. One media source will tell you a substance/product/food/activity is good for kids, another the opposite. This is another reason to be consistent yourself.

Greece is in the news at the moment, and it is accompanied by xenophobic rants about Greeks not paying tax. If you had any time to spare, you would discover through research that people who run the planet don’t pay any tax either. Except we are not talking about a few euros, we are talking billions. 

Much of this is hidden from the public. But be under no illusion. By setting the best example you can, you can put off or deny for ever the day your child is weighed down by the deliberate confusion of the world. You can be the light in the darkness. And as you shine on your child, you will shine on everyone. And sometime soon, confusion and deceit will lift, and your child will be an even greater gift to you, your family and the world.

Jack Stewart.

What a wonderful reminder.  As Jack will tell you, I say there are contemporary approaches and then there is the classical method.  On all counts stimulating a child’s imagination is the latter.

David Miskimin

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