Just a Posh Mining Village

 

A day trip from Sheffield, (we stayed about hour and a half due to the biting cold), and you reach Wentworth Woodhouse in the Borough of Rotherham.

Was this house an inspiration for Pembery in 'Pride and Prejudice'?  There is no evidence that Jane Austin visited the house, but Fitzwilliam (the family name) does appear, and we know of Frederick Wentworth from Persuasion, and indeed Emma's own surname is Woodhouse.

The story begins with the demolition of a Jacobean Mansion and construction of the West Wing.  

The West Wing

Apparently a little family rivalry, and changes in architectural taste amongst the Whigs lead to construction of the 'extension', or East Wing.  This happens to be reputed to be the longest Georgian facade in Europe.  The result is a northern 'Back to Back' terrace, with the facade comprising of three stately homes, each quite sufficient in themselves (would you not say?)

East Wing

Where did the money come from?  This family were 'oil (or rather coal) barons'. Their land sat on the lucrative 'Barnsley Coal Seam'.  Famously in 1946 the Labour government gave permission for the grounds of the house to be ripped up to get at the remains of the coal, which was only 100 feet below the surface. 

Was this the vulnerable post-war nation drawing on valuable assets, or the 'class' tables turning, and an opportunity to reenact the 'Battle of the Somme'?  The Wikipedia site has an ominous photo of the battle raging meters from the great facade.  What would these warriors have said if they now knew that the house and grounds belong to the people of Rotherham?  The enemy soon crumbled through a combination of tragedy (plane crash) and poverty.  The place now is rather down-at-heal.  It was turned down by the National Trust, and is currently covered in scaffolding.  

Other curiosities to be seen are 'The Eye of the Needle'.  Some rich man knows his bible, and certain has found a way to ensure his entry to heaven.

The Eye of the Needle

View from Park Hill over the valley to Upperthorpe

The First Interfaith Tree-
What a great tree-  'Hang on in there'.

What are the BIG Questions?

Listening to the account of St Augustine's confessions as described by 'In Our Time', I am prompted to record my own unanswerable questions.

Philosophical.

Where did evil come from?

We conceive of God as complete holiness and purity.  As the only creator of all things, God therefore created and allowed the most heinous and evil thought and acts conceivable.  In other cultures and religions this is understood by Yin/Yang.  The Manicheans of the Zoroastrian faith saw good and evil as separate in origin, and in a constant struggle.  

The concept of evil is fascinating.  There is personal evil, and institutional evil.  The fact that I have enough to eat, and many, for no fault of their own, do not, is a great evil. I continue to conjecture that the potential for evil is intrinsic to freedom.  In a perfect world I will have the same potential for evil, but no inclination.  I can understand this because even in my imperfection, I have no inclination to harm those I love (or anyone else at the moment.)

It is clear from a quick glance at evolutionary biology that the 'Lion never laid down with the Lamb'. 

In fact the virus, that scourge of humanity, is described as evolution's needle.  It is seen as a possible mechanism for the mixing of genes; a creative force.

It is clear that morality is not morality when the sparrowhawk knocks a pigeon out of the sky, or in fact, the worm attacks a baby's eye.  They are doing what they are programmed to do, and doing it well.  The morality comes when humans have a choice based on our power to influence and moderate biology.

So the perfect world before the christian doctrine of 'the fall' ever kicked in, was an brutal 'dog eat dog' affair.  Our understanding of this is very much affected by our understanding of 'death' and 'pain'.

The Question of Death and Pain

As Woody Allan said, 'I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.'

Isaiah wrote in 8th century BCE  "He will swallow up death forever."  Paul says in 1 Corinthians "Where oh death is your sting?"

Freedom, not only from the concept of death, but also the physical action of fear of death and pain, is a wonderful gift.   

One of the criticisms of the current fashion for 'mindfulness' is the risk of avoiding anxiety about the future, including pain and death.    

The Question of predestination- freewill and Manicheanism.

We have just watched the Star Wars spin-off called Solo, telling the story of Han Solo (and how he got his name in the first place- very important.)

I am reminded of the Jedi religion phenomena again. In the UK 2001 census, 0.8% of people recorded their religion as Jedi, taken from the Star Wars stories.  This could be interpreted as even greater if the numbers who recorded themselves as 'Sith' or 'Dark Side' (scary) were included.  Numbers dropped off in the 2011 census to about 177,000 adherents.  Star Wars as a story confronts some of the big questions in life.  What is good? what is evil?  Who is going to win?  The story is essentially Manichean is identity, with good and evil in a cosmic struggle.  

For me their are two lessons I take from Star Wars.  

1) Keep your eyes on the light- on the source of goodness which provides the mysterious force that provides the hope required for each day.

2) Even the most sophisticated systems are full of  failings.  Expect 'cock-up' over 'conspiracy'.  

My understanding of justice is that our starting point, and ending point are critical.  This goes for the era we were born in, whether it be 35,000 BCE, or some futuristic planet out of Star Wars.  

The place of Accidents in Perfection.

Accidents, random events, do happen.  When the world was perfect (before the fall), tectonic plates shifted, volcano's raged, and dinosaurs bit the heads of unsuspecting  peace loving herbivores.

As I walked home from dropping the car off at the garage, I saw a small child crossing the street with his parents.  Cars were zooming up and down the road.  I felt for the vulnerability of the little child, and saw the protective arm of the parents permitting the 'run to the other side'.  It struck me that 99.99% of the drivers would have no inclination to harm this little child, but accidents do happen.

What about in a perfect world, where there is no inclination to evil or to do harm?  There may still be accidents, which cause great sorrow.  And then I thought of my childish memories when I had felt the presences of a protector with me.  Who knows how serious it might have been, but I do recall the sense of a presence with me.  The first was scrabbling up a sandstone bank in Hong Kong, near to a reservoir. Small holes in the rock offered hand and foot holds.  Then one gave way and I slid slowly down the incline.  I could have gone down a long way, but a hard rock, that stuck out of the sandstone, caught my fall, like a platform.  I remember thinking "You put that there".  The next was when Peter and I were on an onward bound camp with my Uncle Adrian in the Lake District.  I opted to climb Skiddaw, the local mountain to where we were camping.  On the way up, near the top, the path became steep.  An adult in front of me lost his grip and fell back onto me.  Amazingly I was not knocked off my perch, though I was very young at the time.  I remember feeling I was protected then, an invisible hand behind me.  I remember hearing Adrian say that he was going to have to tell me that that climb was not for me, but it had been too late.  The third was when I was in hospital having had an operation to remove a melanoma from my back.  That first night I sensed a presence with me.  Sure there was a student nurse by my side through the night, dealing with my sick, but there was more than that.  I felt protected and safe.

So accidents in a perfect world?  With risk comes protection.

Three Brutal Thoughts

 

The 'Brutal' room- a goldfish bowl.

Thought One

Michael McWatters, writes a poignant piece on his visits to state buildings with his son.  It reminded me of when my NHS service took on an American  child psychotherapist to run our small psychotherapy service.  She took one look at the standard NHS furniture and said it wouldn't do.  She then ordered fine upholstered chipendaleque fare and kicked out the plastic monstrosities.  There was one room in our building that was for ever to be a little piece of 'private' American quality.  Except when she retired the furniture in her room began to scatter round the building so we now have rooms with plastic chairs, and one of Lucy's chairs, like a throne.  Now as part of the assessment we see if the child chooses the throne, or steers clear of it.  

I noted that within the British culture there is an acceptance of NHS style, which is slightly down at heel.  We expect no less.  Cheap and cheerful. It takes an outsider to 'see' and question.  

Thought Two

Four kind people produced a staff well-being booklet for which they were highly commended.  It was very fine, and included pages of 'adult' colouring, for relaxation.  It struck me that the four were all women, and the entire content of the booklet was written from a female perspective.  The picture were all very feminine in content. I thought that it was interesting that if this had been four men, and the booklet had been entirely male in focus, this would not have gone unnoticed.  We have a majority female workforce.  I noted that rank is important.  The feminine booklet is far less offensive than a masculine one would be, because of the power differential.  It illustrates to me the fact that gender equality has not been reached.  When it becomes an issue that the booklet has a female focus may be the day we can say equality has been reached.

Thought Three

What is Social Worker?  We have just set up a Social Work group in CAMHS.  As a colleague once said, "the best job in the world, in the worst circumstances."  

We have been asking that question.  What do Social Workers offer to CAMHS?  June Thoburn suggests that Social Workers are not clinicians, but 'creative helpers'.   I think of social work as a profession that does not fit in with the ways of the world.  It is an uncomfortable profession.  My colleague has a PhD in Social Work.  It's like the Community Care cartoon of the man at the party who has a bleep.  The bleep goes off.  People gather round.  What is it?  Are you a doctor?  Is this an emergency?  No I am a Social Worker.  Next picture he is on his own in the middle of the room with a "what did I say?" expression.

I think of the health service as having an age old 'cast system'.  Everyone knows where they stand.  Then a social worker comes along.  like a European, it must fit at the bottom of the system, and yet it  has this unquantifiable power.  Social Workers live with 'cognitive dissonance'.

Social Work is a systemic practice.  It tries to see the whole world all at the same time.  It is a profession where power dynamics are important.  If often acts as a check to other systems which gives it its abrasive quality.  As June Thoburn discusses in her Community Care interview, Social Worker is part of the state, so all relationships are skewed.  It is a profession with nebulous power. The sense of 'they might remove your children' is the sort of power used by colonial forces to control fast populations.  All you need is that 5% risk for the threat to be powerful enough to cause fear.  It's not a healthy way, but it is a reality, and Social Work acts as the State's fall guy.  

No Social Work in Soviet Russia.  Social work was seen as the instrument of the bourgeois to control and manage the poor.  Perhaps so, but it fits well with the Western notion of individualism.  We have a personal health and welfare system, not a 'social one'.  We solve our problems first via the individual.  In Japan it is the opposite.  The idea behind Social Work is to create a socially harmonious society, that maximises the potential of the society to perform well.  Here social work is not based on the deficit, or the charity model, but on the idea of creating an efficient and productive society.  

Are we looking for a happy medium?