30 minutes?

Nicholas Murray Butler (April 2, 1862 – December 7, 1947)

Quote:  "All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work."

• Attributed to Butler in: American Dental Association (1959) The Journal of the American Dental Association. Vol 59. p. 28  (from Wikiquote https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Murray_Butler)

It's such a simple quote, but true.  I am sure this is not original but my quote would be...

"Find me a kind intelligent ten year old, and I believe they would sort out most of the problems of the world in less than 30 minutes."  

He lives

It's truly a great relief! Our pack is alive again.  For two days now I've been concerned that ‘the past’ had come back to haunt us.  I’d seen groups of dogs back scavenging at the rubbish tip.  At least one of us has been involved in a scuffle and come off worse for wear.

I think we had forgotten what it was like before Jaycie came and formed the pack.  Strange how that rag-tag collection of mutts, mongrels and pedigrees jelled together under a bit of leadership.  

In contrast to the other packs in our territory, Jaycie’s was different.  There was no submissive hierarchy needed, but we all pulled our weight near enough.  Gone was the indignity for some of having to steel scraps, and beg.  For others it was the opposite, as the pack meant giving up ‘lap of luxury' lifestyles.  Jaycie taught us we did not need to snarl and bite.  Other packs were wary of this, and that was probably what lead to the tragedy.  The other packs just couldn't make us out.  They became increasingly hostile. 

The final attack was terrible.  They came down on him with deathly snarls.  He didn't put up a fight at all despite being quite a big dog.  It wasn't long before we smelt the stench of blood.  He didn't stand a chance and was torn limb-from-limb.  We saw it all from a safe distance, whimpering and hiding in the bushes.  The pack fell to bits after that.

Then Macie, you know? the pretty little bitch collie; she said she’d met Jaycie.  Of course I thought her delusional, but I must say, this morning at daybreak, I did hear a very distinctive soft howl on the breeze.  It lifted my spirits, and I felt instantly warm.  The other dog have all picked up on this too.  They say they can smell him in the wind.  The pack’s been seeking each other out all day, and I think other packs have noticed.  They seem more frightened and cautious of us. 

I get the sense something significant has happened – Jaycie’s pack is forming again.

My Sunday school class notes for today said Tell the story of Jesus death...To under 5's!!!  This is how I told it.

Inner Workings

A lane, a courtyard, an alley,
Tracing the neurons of the city.

Firing across at intersections,
People anticipate close connections.

To a end, barred, impenetrable, gated,
A forbidden land, my existence, negated.

Nearby, a window, faces, wrapped in conversation,
Behind inconspicuous doors, oblivious to consternation.

A car giddies past down a narrow lane,
Screeching brakes halt my path, screams 'insane.'

Following behind a siren car swerves....gone,
Relief for those left, not them that done wrong.

Here's a dead building, backs turned in shame,
Foretells a complex extraction, another twist in the city's game.

I gaze as Orhan walks the streets of Istanbul  by night,
A lazy camera bobs in the daze of strange empty light.

Dogs patrol, loose fences scrape in the night-air breeze,
Istanbul floats in a box, like all cities, ill at ease.

Back in my city a woman talks to a phone in a distant tongue,
Her sleeping bag, symbolic of her place at the bottom rung.

A young couple, arm entwined, cross quickly, a furtive glance,
Contrasting disharmonies mix, urging cities to advance.

Charlie

This weekend belongs to Charlie.  Not only is he 50 years old, he also has a Chocolate Factory which Joanna and her cousins visited today with Lis, Mum, Jesse and Frances.

I enjoyed following my nose of two and a half hours round London.

In the morning Mum, Joanna and I visited Leighton House, House of Lord Frederick Leighton, the Pre Raphilite painter.  John Diamond wrote about one of this paintings in the Independent today.

The Fisherman and the Siren,
Bristol Art Gallery

The Arab Hall - Leighton House Kensington

My Route.
First to Somerset House where I very much enjoyed Orhan Pamuk's 'The Museum of Innocences', featuring his father, and objects associated with his book of the same name.  This was exhibited as 83 display boxes, though Somerset House only has 14.  They were beautifully constructed, and I enjoyed watch the film of Orhan walking the streets of Istanbul at night.

The first sample of Istanbul

The old city

 The to the zany young contemporary artists of the world in an exhibitions called Venturing Beyond.
"Thinking means venturing beyond." Ernst Bloch, 1959.

Somerset House- A new flag for Britain

St Dunstan in  the Wrst

Now a Romanian Orthodox church

An octagonal interior

A clearer picture.
Said to be pseudo-Arabic

British Museum- Picture for Peter

Spotting buildings

I'm interested in this shape

A weighty year

The book I have always wanted to write, but fear I may never get round to, is called 'The Coming of The Long Run'.    This tells the story of how 'hope' lives in the future; it will work out in the long run.

But where is the long run?  when does it arrive?  And how much is now the long run?

So I have become obsessed with weight.

• 95 kg - minimum weight to do a sky dive
• 2.2 kg weight of the tent I want to carry across Wales.
• All keen cyclists think about the weight of their bike.  Could I make it lighter?  I'm a half keen cyclist.  I'm thinking how can I cycle down hill (now that I am over it.)

I reflected that with Elizabeth away, I have been given just enough 'waiting' to manage her time away. I'll see her in 3 weeks.

Got My New Tent!

 Thanks Mum- It's fantastic

MSR - Elixier 2 Person.

My Dream

Ridge walk from the North Coast to the South.
I'll do 3 days.

Surely one of the finest Mountains...in the world.

Rhinog Fach- A mountain with great personality

The Geology is extraordinary-
especially the sheer slope straight into the lake (Llyn Hywel)

The route between Rhinog Fawr and Fach.