I am happy to be in the one third of Britains who are not depressed by Lockdown.I’m depressed by politics and the men who seem to be unsuitable as leaders
Are we afraid of the unknown, afraid we can’t have foreign holidays or jusr fed up with summer being spoiled?
Afraid of Trump winning.. that would depress God.
I think working people have the right to be afraid, especially people on low wages already
Who would have thought that we voted democratically ‘ahahahaha to leave the EU
with a little help from Russia yet we are distressed we can’t holiday in Spain or Greece
Why don’t people join up the dots? We can never have it all….. make your own fun and joy
Can you see?
Can you hear?
Can you walk?
Have you got a family who care and some friends?
Do you own a car?
Why not take up new interests.Lots of YouTube videos are lessons in Art,sewing, philosophy etc
And if you have a good job please help charities like the Samaritans who need money if 2/3 of us are depressed

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/10/reading-too-much-political-news-bad-happiness/616651/

This requires that we honestly examine our attachments. What are yours? Money, power, pleasure, prestige? Dig deeper: Just maybe, they are your opinions. The Buddha himself named this attachment and its terrible effects more than 2,400 years ago in the Aṭṭhakavagga Sutta, when he is believed to have said, “Those attached to perception and views roam the world offending people.” More recently, the Vietnamese Buddhist sage Thích Nhất Hạnh wrote in his book Being Peace, “Humankind suffers very much from attachment to views.”

As the election season heats up, many Americans are attached to their opinions—especially their political ones—as if they were their life’s savings; they obsess over their beliefs like lonely misers, and lash out angrily when they are threatened. This is the source of much suffering, for the politically obsessed and everyone else.

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The pathways to the heart are made with love.
And those who truly seek will  never lose.
As virtue and her graces smile above
We see the hills ahead,the rocky views.

With willingness to cross the seas of mud,
To venture into tangled briar-filled woods.
Our soul within shows us the highest good,
For trees that looked quite dead are now in bud.

With flowers springing up  between our toes
Encouragement is ,with relief ,received
And as we smell the fragrance of the rose,
At last we know our hearts were not deceived.

For Virgil, fortune favours those with steadfast feet.
The journey may be long,the end is sweet.

“Fortune favours the brave”is attributed to Pascal,Montaigne and Virgil

.

Deja mew…. the cat’s upset already
Deja new…. a logical impossibility
Deja you….I met you before
Deja true… an axiom
Deja due……..your payment is late
Deja slew… he was dead before I shot him, sir.
Deja new…second hand
Deja blue….. inborn sadness
Deja vile….original sin
Deja bile————-I had indigestion earlier
Deja smile……I won’t laugh again
Deja flew……I love you no more/I have gone
Deja dew—————-will it drop off?
Deja who…..I know you but not your name
Deja new………old
Deja phew….. that was hard

As hidebound as a leather chair-

As thoughtless as a broom;

He is more stuck  than is despair

Which hovers round his room

Hurt by  bullies in his school.

He made protective rules.

Never go out  with a girl

Never aid a fool.

Never vote in case you err

Never wear red  socks.

Be angry that life’s  so unfair

Live inside a box.

Always say your prayers at night#

Never read in bed

And never ever think about

What  you might do instead.

His menu was so regular,

From  change he gained no pleasure

He cut his meat up with  an axe

To make it hard to measure.

He counted every step he took

And every time he  wheezed.

He wrote it in his diary

And this act made him sneeze.

He was allergic to the air;

Allergic to the sun;

At least the tickle in his throat,

Made him laugh in fun.

He had a job with a big bank

He always wore a suit

Till one day his colleague said

That only plants had roots.

The implication seemed to be

He was in stasis glued.

He always wore the same old clothes

And ate the same old food.

Could he help himself and how?

Could he be softer skinned?

He dreamed he climbed up a great cliff

Despite  the gale and wind.

And so he  left the bank and moved

To work in a coal mine.

He crawled along the tunnels black

And measured them with twine

.

Top Posts & Pages

• Poetic truth:Wordsworth
• Autumn visions
• Anaphylaxis and other geometries
• “Their beauty has more meaning” by Robinson Jeffers
• At the gate by Henrick Norbrandt
• A Chilly Paradise (An analysis of ‘The Cold Heaven’ by W.B. Yeats)
• Villanelle for an Anniversary By Seamus Heaney
• Poems of hope and resilience
• A history without suffering
• Apostrophe poem

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Does nitrofurantoin make you itch?
What are the symptoms of an allergic reaction to Macrobid?Signs of an allergic reaction, like rash; hives; itching; red, swollen, blistered, or peeling skin with or without fever; wheezing; tightness in the chest or throat; trouble breathing, swallowing, or talking; unusual hoarseness; or swelling of the mouth, face, lips, tongue, or throat.7 Mar 2020

Have you seen this cat?

I may die but at least anaphylaxis gives me that bee stung lip look{!}
I never knew how to spell it but I got it anyway
Luckily it was mild but I’m not going bee hunting ever again
A bee need not be that insect, it might be penicillin
I’ll go wherever Leonard Cohen went

Why have you not read the Word?
Are we talking Bible or Microsoft?
You can’t fool me!
No-one is totally foolproof
Can you prove that?
In a sense,I can.If you are tired or ill you can read words or people wrongly.
Or I suppose if you are plain stupid
Stupidity is intriguing as one can have a first class degree in maths and yet not know how to look after yourself
Suppose the degree is in Home Economics?
That is a better key to life.Using your hands helps your brain
To do what?
Why do you ask me? Can’t you guess?
I suppose the nervous system is stimulated when the eye and hand coordinate.Then the brain is balanced
Well, you are no fool
But I can still be fooled
Especially with new technology, liars and fear

This discussion was funded by the University of Lands End last seen floating West
Please let the police know if you see it

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2013/jan/08/god-unknowable-faith

“Faith is not the progressive unearthing of God’s nature but a recognition that he/she is fundamentally unknowable. The signpost points not to growing certainty but towards increasing non-knowing. This is not as outrageous as it seems. An apophatic thread, a belief that the only way to conceive of God is through conceding that he is ineffable, runs throughout Christian history. Jan Van Ruysbroeck, the 14th century Augustinian and man of prayer, maintained that “God is immeasurable and incomprehensible, unattainable and unfathomable”. St John of the Cross, one of the pillars of western mysticism, put it even more succinctly: “If a man wishes to be sure of the road he travels on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark.”

This redirectioning of the spiritual path has fruitful offshoots. We no longer have to ask why God orders the world in such an unsatisfactory way, allowing cancer cells and war to proliferate. Nor do we have to bombard him with prayer in order to achieve our desired ends. Such dialogue is only sustainable if you posit a personal being.”

X = mathematician’s eyes in the evening [ hence why x is used in algebra]
Y- why indeed?
Z =man praying after taking maths exam

A= women gossiping
B = mature lady’s’ figure
C=a yoga teacher
D= very fat man
E- two pews in old church
F= feeling dizzy balanced on one foot
G-=door into small w.c.
H = person with no head
I = very thin man with tiny head
J= thin man kneeling
K= more yoga
L = man sitting on the floor
M=two thin men carrying a triangular sack
N= Z on its side
O = the sun
P= thin but well endowed lady

I will work remotely,as does God
But where’s my Holy spirit or white dove
Invisible connections may look odd
I will smile remotely, as did God
Especially as he let wild waters flood
When the plum trees of great Persia were in bud
Is he wise, or is his hatred love?
Mysterious ladies rarely understood
Sullen princess hides behind her glove
I will work remotely,as does God
But you can’t check me neither,understood?

---

An old man kissed my hand outside a shop
My hair was gleaming in the yellow sun
What surprise, what care, but what a shock
What grace there was in customs , mainly stopped
My face was bright, my stockings had no runs
A man just kissed my hand outside a shop
I should have done a selfie, what a cop!
I bet he fell in love ,ah Beatrice won
What surprise, what care, but what a shock
He was not drunk, his hands had just been mopped
I had not been so touched by anyone
Till this man kissed my hand outside a shop
In a silent morning, grace erupts
We know what’s passed but not what is to come
A man just kissed my hand outside a shop
Give us our applause, oh come on,clap!
I think we’ve fallen off the usual map
An old man kissed my hand outside a shop
He saw my pain and recognised my pluck

Hello doctor,I’ve got that athlete’s foot in my mouth again
You must have a big mouth
But doctor,I need some ointment
I’d try rodent repellent if I were you
Look at my notes and see what you find
Ok, you have cystitis and now you have oral thrush
I hope it’s not alive
How could you breathe if a bird was in your mouth ?
Through my nose.I don’t think a bird would go up there
I’ll send you some gel, oral gel.
If I don’t use it all it might be useful
For what?
Doctor, please don’t say amything
But we’re on the phone!
You don’t have to talk though
Be off

Is there only one person I can rightly become, lightly?
Was my true self,existing before the sperm was swallowed by the egg
or are there many paths and many selves, none true or afew
For truth itself is fuzzy ,I don’t mean fake or dizzy
But it lacks hard edges, persuading us we are in the world’s eye.
rather than a bag of bones, of possible paths to roam
If I had not had the accident, if he had not oicked my bike
If I’d opened my bank account at Barclays, or said what I liked
If I was not so silent or less hearty
If I had not seen you at the party,
If you eyes had been hard or less sharp
Did I mould myself around you, would that be false?
As if being intertwined were a trick to test how we are vulnerable
And if we became one,
What am I now, with you gone?

 

No incense nor candles allowed

It makes yoghurt easily. It’s many gadgets in one and yet looks atheistically pleasing sat on the side. Overall I can’t rate it highly enough

This pudding can be enriched by adding a beaten egg to the dry mix with the milk
then cookingas below

I’ve not tried it yet but did used to make a similar one with burnt sugar

2 oz cornflour
1 oz Cocoa [ or I oz cornflour and some vanilla essence/ almond etc]
2 oz sugar

I pint of milk

Mix the dry ingredients with a little milk till smooth
Heat the rest of the milk then pour the coca mixture in and stir constantly to prevent lumps

It should thicken and then you pour it into a dish.It will set like blancmange

If you do get lumps liquidise it before it thickens then carry on.A hand blender shaped like a wand can be used directly into the pan and you can get them quite cheaply.I seem to have three ! I can’t count or measure.I only do algebra to avoid numbers as much as possible

---

The bell rang on the ancient church at noon.
A sparrow flitted to the Tudor wall.
Was this the knell which brings us damned gloom?

Perhaps there is no meaning here at all.
I read my unknown thoughts projected out,
And in my rage, desire the walls to fall.

Like you, I am too often stuck in doubt
Betrayed by old ideal and vanished wish.
So what is in confuses that without.

Oh,pain, oh ,mind, oh agony, oh flesh.
I shall not cling to life and wait for grace.
I am, myself, a fish in net of mesh.

Was this my destiny, my rightful place;
Alone besieged by sorrows on all sides?
I err for being sad is no disgrace.

So ,to my hopes, I’ll cling like drowning beast
Until my invitation to the feast.

Before we go to bed we vegetate
No need for teacher but a compost heap.
And as we vegetate, we drift to sleep
While in our dreams our little mind debates

But mostly we’re unknowing in this dark
Where God himself may manifest at will.
His dazzling darkness makes our souls be still
And wait for strikes by living ,glowing sparks.

But in the morning ,we come back to strife
Take up our work and suffer every stroke.
From sapling to the oldest,strongest oak
Each must choose again its proper life


Every look we cast at others strikes
Reflects and shows us what we have become
And when there is no movement, we are done
Our mind and heart have chosen what they like


. So in our end we vegetate again
And no more rise to labour in the day
We fertilise the fields passed on our way
We show the end of woman and of man.


A daily round becomes our life and death.
We live because we’re breathed by sacredness

Food is not a meal without a plate
The history of our race is one of rites
The dignity of setting, time and date

Single folk may eat meals from a tray
The gobbling of the burger’s out of sight
Food is not a meal without a plate

A prayer of blessing, heads bowed as we say
Then we eat, converse into the night
With dignity in meeting, time with space

The plates, a simple white, we dedicate
To the love of sharing and of light
Food is a fine meal upon a plate

From the high chair, toddlers aggravate
Let them be themselves, without dislike
Learn their dignity without disgrace

The Sunday roast, the laughter we incite
Forgivenesss and regret for our mistakes
Food is not a meal without a plate
The dignity of setting, time and date

These photos are copyright E.Limbrey 2020

Virtue Ethics

Below is an extract

Virtue ethics is a broad term for theories that emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences. A virtue ethicist is likely to give you this kind of moral advice: “Act as a virtuous person would act in your situation.”

Most virtue ethics theories take their inspiration from Aristotle who declared that a virtuous person is someone who has ideal character traits. These traits derive from natural internal tendencies, but need to be nurtured; however, once established, they will become stable. For example,  a virtuous person is someone who is kind across many situations over a lifetime because that is her character and not because she wants to maximize utility or gain favors or simply do her duty. Unlike deontological and consequentialist theories, theories of virtue ethics do not aim primarily to identify universal principles that can be applied in any moral situation. And virtue ethics theories deal with wider questions—“How should I live?” and “What is the good life?” and “What are proper family and social values?”

Seems the seven plagues are coming back
Now we are in Lockdown for control
Of care for others, seems there was a lack
Oh, the seven plagues are riding back
We never saw the swift and silent rat
Where are those lost entities called “souls”?
I say, the deadly plagues are fast and wreck
The total Lockdown. who then will console?
Noone will admit they knew the facts
Killing any virus is a knack
Both high intelligence and smooth sweet tact
Suddenly I hear the thunder roll
What’s the good of weeping by a crack
Noone worships tears in sugar bowls