He who has ears to hear let him hear

I believe that’s a quotation from the New testament and of course many of our sayings do come from the Bible and then from the works of Shakespeare and then from other great poets and writers.

But what what does this saying mean?

Everybody is born with hearing via their ears but this saying seems to be implying that there’s some other kind of hearing that not everybody attains.

So it doesn’t matter how wonderful a speech someone makes nor what’s an interesting conversation a friend is trying to have with you if you don’t have the right kind of hearing. And this involves a lot more than just the ears then what they’re saying is lost on you.

Because the senses don’t act independently and when you’re talking to someone it’s not just the words that you’re saying but they are reading your face and your eyes. They are reading your bodily movements.

This is where there could be problems for some of us if we are not familiar with understanding people’s faces and knowing their emotions and so on.

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression

I could read him like a book

So there are different sorts of seeing and hearing probably far more than I would know about. So you may have eyes and ears that function normally but it is hard to learn how to hear and to see more deeply and more sensitively and not all of us achieve this. Because we we don’t know what we don’t know, if you see what I mean.

It reminds me of a young man proposing to a woman he loves but she remains

Deaf to his entreaties

Similarly Audi self might send us messages about the deeper needs of our self. But we may not hear these we may not notice anything.

How do we learn to hear?

It’s partly through contact with other people and through school,studying works of art and literature.

Maybe some people are more likely to notice these things.

If you’re living in a very unsafe country then you don’t have any space in your mind or how to take in more than what’s essential.

But it’s interesting there is always more to see a more to hear a more to learn if we learn how to be open to it

This is another say8ng6 of my mother. I think the meaning is obvious.

And moving from what happens in the UK into what happens to people in other countries it’s obvious that in many countries it really is true that many people live on the verge of start version

27 years ago the chancellor Gordon Brown introduced the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. This amounted to £200  for a person under 80 and £300 for those above 80.

Assumption is that many pensioners cant afford to pay their heating bills.

Our new government announced recently that this payment is going to be abolished and it’s causing a lot of controversy.

But I think a lot of people can’t afford to heat their homes to an ideal level

And who decides on that level? If you are over 70 it is recommended your home is heated to at least 18 C but there is no recommendation for the average person although it’s obvious that babies and young children will need warm bedrooms.

I think the right wing press are using this issue to attack the government an exaggerating the effect of the cut but on the other hand I’ve already said that I think it’s a mistake owing to a lack of imagination.

Even with this payment many pensioners will be afraid of the winter.

Food has gone a lot more expensive than it was before the pandemic. Brexit has probably influenced that

The mood in the country is poor many people feel very angry and unhappy.

So is it right that some people are paid very low wages waste is not possible to heat the home or eat the food that’s most desirable?

There are two main definitions of poverty in Britain. There is absolute poverty which means that you can’t eat properly buy suitable clothing and keep your home warm.

You may not have a home if you’re living in absolute poverty.

Then there is relative poverty. This means that you cannot afford things which are regarded as important by most people. You can only buy what’s essential and you may not be able to afford to buy your children a computer or a smartphone. You may not be able to dress in the way that you would like or the same applying to your children, I’m not sure where to place a problem of you can’t afford enough beds for your family so several children are sleeping in one bed or even sleeping on a chair, that sounds like absolute poverty but people in that position are not usually helped by the government or the local authority.

It’s been reported that school teachers are buying clothes for children or taking in food to give them breakfast and some teachers are providing laundry services for children’s school uniforms. This seems to happen when someone’s washing machine breaks down and they can’t afford to replace it

And taking a lot of close to the laundrette to wash is expensive. That is it’s expensive for the poor as the wealthy and the middle income people would be able to use a launderette if they wanted to.

So what indeed is essential. And what is a luxury?

I wonder whether anybody ever thinks about this in the government.

My grandfather was a coal miner for 50 years but I never heard him complain. I suppose his neighbours and relatives were in the same position and nobody had more heating than a coal fire in the living room. The rest of the house was not heated unless somebody was ill when possibly you might have a paraffin heater in the bedroom.

I can remember having a high temperature and lying in my mother’s bed with a Tilley lamp warming the room.

As I was delirious it seem to take on a threatening sound  so I lay there frightened

I can’t remember whether the room felt warm.

So people didn’t expect much. no there is more knowledge and more awareness of what other people are earning and  how they live. That makes it harder for the poor