A happy New Year to you all folks and may this one deliver you all your needs, wishes and dreams in superabundance. May you be free to enjoy the fruits of a free country, free of pains and aches; free of “pains-in-the-arse-” free of restrictions of movement, of thought and of expression for you and for everyone around you. Enough free time to read all you can and, most importantly to me, the chance to do what I once, a very long time ago, was able to do and which has changed my life very seriously: To sleep upon the Ozie dirt, far away from any human constructs and particularly the glaring, moth-loving lights and look up at this vast and stunning sky of ours! See how you lose your powers of speech when you’re faced with something as awsome as this. To the right of the huge but stunningly elegant constellation of Orion is an ever- expanding tapestry of sparkling diamonds, the likes of which no human can even think of copying! Contemplate on that and think that had all the people of this planet got together and threw away the scum they have for politicians and the scum they have for corporate CEOs we would all be able to enjoy -and even more importantly!- share equally this sight! Think also that our planet is but one, tiny planet at the very edge, most insignificant part of our galaxy and upon it live -what is it now 6billion people? In this sort of arithmetic how significant is one mortal, one mortal’s utterances say even for the duration of his whole life, let alone a mouthful of bile directed at you? And if a mortal is insignificant then what is? Just to mention three, Cicero, Seneca and Socrates -there were and still are (some are waiting in Quantanamo bay and in Refuge centres around the world) many more, thought that principles are far more important than lives, or mouthfuls of bile and they either cut their wrists or took hamlock.
Go to sleep and wake up to the sound of the billy boiling. If you’d done your work right the damper would also be giving you a provocative whiff! Swing the billy right and undo you damper! Then open any good book that you might have been carrying with you. Let’s see, I’d recomend Seneca, Cisero or Shakespeare, or Plato or Herodotus or Thucydides or.... for an early start. The first two are easy reading: letters to friends, relatives, “sparring partners!” as Rabbo would have it: Seneca:”So the spirit must be trained to a realization and an acceptance of its lot.” (p181 Penguin ‘69) I won’t go on with the quote but you should get familiar with its context. Cicero will give you a wholesome understanding of how easily brutality can envelope and overpower a huge empire, paralyse its mind, energise its guts. “The Ides of March” was fast approaching. Shakespeare’s MacBeth: To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself (II,ii, 72) Now look to your neighbour and the moment s/he begins to spout out bile, quietly put your hand over his/her mouth and say the words, “I love you!” Remove your hand and open your heart, your arms are a symbol of that. Open them wide, smile wide, breath deep and wait... Come back on HC and tell us what happened! Have a great new year, folks!
