Distractions

People sometimes ask, after reading something like my last post, what they can do about some or all of the great and terrible events in the world. Well I answered that once, and it seems that my answer is similar now. You can't do anything. Unless you can.

You can do what you can do. But you probably don't believe you can do very much so that is one obstacle. Things are not as bad as all that though. There are certainly some things you are good at now (some people think they are good at nothing, others think they are superior in everything - it is probable that both types are wrong) so you know you can do those things. Hopefully at least some of them are things that can help other people so you are on the way already.

Do you know, there might actually be something useful you can do to help. But probably we aren't sure what that is at this stage. You may have your suspicions (a hidden talent, a forgotten wish?) or may think you are not cut out for great things. You don't have to get your name in the papers to do great things, though. Could be you are great already. (I am telling the truth here - the biggest step is believing me)

Some people get their name in the papers a lot. They are famous and talked-about. We give them responsibility for good and evil things that we also read about in the papers. But have you noticed that the papers don't make a lot of sense? They are ENTIRELY speculative because they are of the moment. But we take the speculation as fact, and fail to notice that it changes the next day. Apparently it is correct to believe statements that have been put into print; less reliable to trust someone's word. (Unless they are famous)

It MIGHT be useful to read about events. Possibly. If you remember that what you're reading always has a particular viewpoint. But reading doesn't mean you are acting. That might seem obvious. But it is easy to imagine that reading today's opinion makes one well-informed and therefore makes one feel one has done one's bit to "set the world to rights". Is it true though?

It takes a while to read the paper. It takes some time to talk about what was in the paper. It takes a lot of energy to carry the beliefs that came from the paper. Let's just accept that not everything is right in the world (yet), that we can't fully know what's going on (probably), that we probably can't change the large-scale happenings, that you can control how you affect yourself and other people, that you can decide to make creative things happen and not destructive ones, that you can be the best person that you already were (under the surface), and not GET DISTRACTED BY CURRENT AFFAIRS!

The most important current affairs are your own current affairs. "Jane Smith orders air strike against husband". "Man declares war on that cat next door". "Twins sign new peace accord".

You are making your own headlines. The difference is, you can change everything about your own news.

Israeli-Lebanese Conflict Protest

Today there was a march in central London largely by Muslims protesting against the actions of Israel in the ongoing Lebanese conflict. Men and women separated as usual, the protest passed through the centre of London in four waves.

Children were represented both in person, carried in the arms of a parent or in pushchairs, and symbolically, shown by the presence of tiny black coffins also carried in the arms of demonstrators.

Pre-prepared orange placards were held up and as each crowd passed it chanted slogans, repeating the words of a few young men in their midst with megaphones, reading from cards.

The sight of the black coffins, both small and man-sized, was the most dramatic aspect, yet for me this visual imagery was matched by the chilling sound of the women's high voices shouting the Takbir, "Allahu Akhbar" (الله أكبر).

Not normally chilling, although sensational media might have us hear it otherwise, the phrase meaning God is Great is traditionally used in a rich variety of circumstances. But today it appeared provocative, the verbal missile of one religion hurled at another. Perhaps I misread the intention, but to my eyes it appeared that this protest was not against war and aggression, seeking conciliation, but was instead a protest against another country, people, and, perhaps, religion.


Other slogans to be heard were "Down With USA" and "George Bush Go To Hell". Perhaps I did not misunderstand after all. It seems unequivocal at least as far as the US is concerned. I could not hear everything they shouted but other chants were less pithy, for example "Death, Destruction, Full of Dark". It may have been more poetic but it didn't make me feel much better.

I don't believe we fully know what is at the root of the tension between Israel and Arabia. Clearly it is difficult. Clearly I wish there would be more understanding. Perhaps this is impossible. I'm sorry to say that I have sympathy for the cultures on both sides of this question. Only sorry because it doesn't seem a very popular viewpoint to take. In a war is it most dangerous to be in the middle?

I should know better than to criticise either side of the conflict - and I do, because I wasn't criticising.

We could potentially learn a lot from both of these religions. I'm sure the greatest winners would be the two cultures themselves, if they could do the same. But they are concerned about their own true possessions (land) and while that is very understandable, to me I do not see that ownership can ever be much more than ink on the map, when all one finds on either side of the line is people and...more people. I will say no more about that.

The procession has passed by now, without incident. I hope the same fortune will befall these simple, hopeful words. (Hopeful that no-one sees this as critical of Islam - which would be as foolish as taunting Israel when we have seen what she can do many times before...)

---

FridgeCam

I have been keeping my eye on this FridgeCam (a Web Cam inside a refrigerator) for some time. It is in Kawasaki, Japan.

I always wondered if it was real. Now I have evaluated it, I can confirm that things do get eaten! The contents of the fridge changes. But you must wait and see.

If you want to make your own FridgeCam, there are instructions on this page:

http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/gardens/make.html

Good Luck! And don't get too cold!

Quizzezzz

Take a quiz!

It might stretch yr brain a bit!

Go here ... mostly they are good.

Extremely Mediocre

What is happening? What is happening is that the whole country of Great Britain is going a bit mad. Based purely on the level and intensity of media response, it seems that everyone is highly affected by the hot weather we are having.

As everyone prepares to be blasted by "the hottest recorded temperature in Britain EVER" I am left wondering why it is that I find it merely warm. Can it be that it is not actually dangerously hot? Well, you wonder, what temperature are we talking about here? Well, the hottest temperature EVER in Britain would be something like 38°C. When it gets over 30, British things start to melt and break. 38 is hot but...there are places in this world of ours where 38 is fairly normal!

The hottest recorded temperature "EVER" on the surface of the Earth was 57.7°C in Al 'Aziziyah in Libya, on 13th September 1922. Now THAT is very HOT.

If this heat crisis continues I shall probably start finding this country more attractive. I don't start to warm up before we reach 30°C so I will be feeling fine I should expect. But what of my fellow countrymen? To be honest, I haven't asked them. I have just read reports (apparently it reached 52°C on a bus and 47 on the Tube - so some concern is justified I think, not from me though because I don't use either of these normally). But I think we have to admit that htis country is used to quite a middle-of-the-road sort of temperature. It never really boils and it never really freezes. Isn't the national temperament much the same? One could well gripe at that, but I think these days particularly we can be glad that extremism is largely missing from the British psyche.

Java Earthquake and Tsunami July 2006: Links

Here are some links for more information on the Java Tsunami that happened yesterday.


Help Jogja blog (Bahasa Indonesia/Indonesian)
Indonesia Quake Help Wiki
News bulletins from Indahnesia.com,
Sumerbatikan blog - Hans van den Broek, who lives in Java and is raising funds to help
Indonesia Help
Another blog with local information
Wim and Phillip's site (Nederlands/Dutch)

A Lot On Your Mind

Some people have a lot to think about. They have problems.

One person writes from Germany that her friends and some of her family are stuck in Lebanon, with no access to the outside. The only things coming in are missiles. She says her friend has put up a blog - you can see it here. I don't know if it helps, but it is there, so you can see what it is. (I didn't like it the first time but it made more sense when I looked again.)

That sort of anxiety, the kind that comes from having bits of your city explode all night, is a higher level than most of us are used to. Fear of imminent and unpredictable death is very exacting. I cannot deny that they have a lot on their minds.

Coincidentally, another person writes from Germany to say that she has problems. The future is uncertain, and she can't sleep at night. She has a lot on her mind. But at least she is not in a war situation.

People need help but what help can we give?

And you cannot help them because you too have a lot on your mind.

---

When someone says they are afraid because the future is uncertain, that seems OK to me. I mean the second part is OK: that the future is uncertain. I agree, it is.

What you see coming towards you out of the shadows is unknown. That is more or less given. But to be afraid of this, while understandable, is...not helpful. I am glad that the future is not a given, because that way it can throw anything at me that it wants to. If I could control it totally it would not be as interesting. Even my imagination is not enough for that.

There is uncertainty, but of that one thing at least we can be certain. It isn't a joke! It just shows you that you have nothing to worry about - you KNOW that something surprising is going to happen, sometime. And once you get your life under control you can start to plan things, so it is not a total gamble.

There is still a risk, though! But chance enough that you might win.

----

And in Java they have problems too. Also see my list.

----

So, as you can see, many people need help. In many different ways.

But I think you can see that your problems are not as bad as you thought.

Except they sort of are, because if there is a big problem somewhere in the world then it is our problem. Yet, problems are not as bad as you think. If there were never any problem then nothing would ever improve. Do you see?

The future is never certain, even when we have reached it. That is worth remembering too.

The past? We forgot it. If we remember it, we may have got it wrong but not know.

We only have now. It's a good now. I wonder where it will go next?

Petals Around the Rose

Here is a puzzle.

They say that the cleverer you are, the longer it will take you to solve it.

So I am encouraged that I have NO CLUE at all about it!

Detox Diet Food

I'm not putting you on a detox diet, I'm just telling you which foods are good and which are different from good.

Let me explain.

You need to eat food to give you energy to live. Not all of the food you eat is digested; some is expelled as natural waste. Your body takes out all the good bits it can use first. There are various organs it uses for this, an important one being the liver.

The liver filters out poisons, or toxins (hence "detox"). This does not necessarily mean you are eating poison - sometimes it does though!

But the liver has to do this filtering all the time, and sometimes it has a lot to do. Sometimes it can get overloaded. It does its best, but when it cannot cope it does everything it can to keep working. This can mean relocating some of the toxins and storing them in your body to be expelled when there is less of a demand on the liver. One such method is to store them as adipose tissue - fat!

The liver, and your body, always does the best it can. As well as storing waste it cannot safely eliminate, the body can also send it out in other ways. So if you have ever had spots, bad breath, or a strange rash, it could be this method at work. Sometimes it looks less attractive, but it is always good for you.

So, spots etc. are actually waste being eliminated in a safe way (avoiding liver damage, you see). It is natural, but it is a sign that the liver is overloaded, and that things could be managed more easily if there were less of a load on it.

Do you want to know what is hard for the liver to process, and what is easy or even helpful? OK I will tell you!

CAUSES PROBLEMS:
Drugs (so-called "recreational" drugs)
Drugs (medical drugs - these are intended to help but they are foreign to the body and it will fight to eliminate them if it can)
Tobacco (smoking, oh dear, I hope you don't smoke)
Alcohol (Drink! It is hard to process too. You know that alcoholics can suffer liver failure, don't you)
Tea and Coffee (very common, I know, but you also know they are strong stimulants, don't you! Especially if you drink them...)

OK that's all for "special cases". Now we can talk about food.

MORE DIFFICULT TO PROCESS:
Red Meat (especially big steaks)
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Peppers
Aubergines
Mushrooms
Olives
Processed meats like sausages
Dairy Foods (Dairy fat): milk, cream, cheese, yoghurt etc.
[Apparently a lot of fat is harder to process too.]
Wheat
Food with preservatives, colourings, artificial flavourings
Sugar - buy any soft drink and tell me it does not have sugar in it (sugar, sucrose, dextrose, levulose, fructose, "fruit sugar" - it's all the same!)
Salt
Soya products (legumes such as peanuts, soy beans, and other beans contain a substance which inhibits the enzyme trypsin (from the pancreas) which is needed to digest them - but this is only really a problem in compromised livers, it is not so bad as bad things!)
Smoked foods

EASIER TO PROCESS:
Chicken and other poultry
Eggs
Oats, barley, rye, millet, buckwheat (also in flour and pasta)
Fish (though it is suggested you shouldn't have too much fish because of what we put into the sea...and into the fish)

ACTUALLY GOOD FOR YOUR LIVER:
Vegetables: Alfalfa, artichoke, bean sprouts, beetroot (not pickled!), broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, dandelion, fennel, garlic, leek, onion, parsley, radish, watercress
Fruits: Apple, pear, apricot, avocado, banana, berries, cranberries, grapefruit, grapes, lemon, orange, papaya, pineapple, watermelon.

How many from the last category did you have today? And how many from the first? And how is your health?

Anyway, a healthy digestion can cope with all normal things - but some of us need to get healthy first. Cutting out toxins will also make you feel happier and have more energy.

So now you know that if you feel a bit nauseous or have a headache, it could be because of "difficult" foods and drinks. So you can consider that now you know about it.

And if you ever feel a bit like that, you can have some of the nice foods to start feeling better!

That's what I wanted you to know about.

If you went for a serious "detox" then that would be different. It hurts! I mean, it should not hurt, but there can be some pains as toxins are released. So be careful - don't do it while you are working!

Oh yes, did I forget to mention one thing that's very good for you?

WATER!

Have a lot - but not too much. (Vegetarians will need less)

A good drink to have is water with lemon juice in it.

Also remember that the best foods are organic, fresh, pure. Organic means "growing" - organic food is "food that's grown in a growing way" rather than in a perverted and unusual way - there's nothing special about it, it's just the natural way! It can be more expensive, but it is getting a lot better. If money is a problem, get the best you can afford - this is your health and happiness, and if you are feeling better you will soon be able to earn more money!

The lists of good and bad liver foods I got from Liver Detox Plan by Xandria Williams. Here it is if you want one! -



[Health Note: Remember, health is a serious matter. I am not a qualified health professional. I am just speaking from personal experience. If you are concerned about your health you should speak to a qualified person.]

Reader Response Reply

Andrew writes in a comment to "Teaching and Learning":

This is very wise and true. But if you can't make enough money from doing what you really want to do, what should you do? Can you (ie. Philip) make enough money from doing what you really want to do, and if you can't, what else do you do to earn it?

3:33 PM GMT+01:0

Hi Andrew, thanks for asking! Although your question is rather penetrating as it involves interrogating me about my finances! :)

There is (as usual) more than one way of looking at this.

1) If I can't make money out of my chosen job, is it really useful to people? People pay for useful things...(of course they pay for useless things too!)

2) Creativity and imagination are very important in helping you find a good job. For example, if I say I want to be an acrobat, then that's fine. I could be a) mad or b) a talented acrobat. OK let's say I am a good acrobat. I could stop there and say, oh, but there is no work for acrobats, so I have to do something else. Or somehow my imagination and creativity could help me see a way to make it work.

Saying

you can't make enough money from doing what you really want to do

...means just that so far you haven't made money from it. Or that you have decided it is not possible and stopped trying - perhaps even before you started!

Now, it is also true that some jobs are not very lucrative. Perhaps they are not useful? But if someone has a helpful talent and they have developed it then there must be a place for it in the world. And you know you are doing the right thing when it makes you feel happy.

So, how to get your dream job: dream it, define your goals, train for it, discover who wants you to do it, aim at them, get money. (Very simple, eh?)

3) OR you can say, look, I love doing this thing, so I'm just going to do it, and not try to get any money from it. But you will have to get money from something, and the other thing you do to survive on needs to be something you enjoy as well...so it is a similar situation.

We all had dreams once, but school often teaches us that we are not good enough to do anything, that we have to make the best of what we have, and living in Britain often teaches us that everything is awful and grey and nobody wants you! (AAArggh!)

Not a pretty picture. And if it is not pretty, leave it! Paint your own!

It might be very daunting to imagine leaving your present path to find a more fun one. You have to be brave. But it will be more colourful and lively! I recommend it.

Myself, I know that everyone has talent. I also know that it could turn to genius with enough commitment. Anyway, regardless of that, we're just looking at talent here, skills, aptitudes, abilities. We all have skills - if there were really people without any skills it would be STUPID. I can't believe it's possible. Perhaps that is more a philosophical-type question - here we are just talking about the people reading this now. Hopefully some skills to be had among them...

If something is valuable then it is needed, somewhere. If I thought I had no value then I would admit it and either live in a hole in the ground eating stones or try to get more useful fast.

It is easier, at the time of writing, for me to make money as a pianist than as a composer because people recognise e.g. a Beethoven sonata or a Xenakis piece. They do not know what a piece by me is like (since I generally do not know either!) so it is harder to get them to "buy" it. It takes a bit longer to develop as a composer so I am not expecting to earn millions out of that yet! If I never get money for composing that's OK (actually I already did get a bit) because I will still get paid to use my skills. But I have not finished yet so it is possibly not the end of the story for me as a composer...

I recognise where there is a demand, and that plays some part in the way I direct myself. Somehow I can think of marketing potential yet still stick to my own interests. Odd. Strangely though, anyone can reproduce existing success, but something really distinctive is rather more memorable, and that's what I am going for. It is me, my personality, doing the things I am interested in. Even if I play a piece by Chopin, I know that it is potentially popular (people have done it many times before) but I also know that I am meant to play it (if I decide to) and that my way is different from the other ways. So that's what makes me think there could be some demand.

The other point is about "making enough money". What is enough? Perhaps some lifestyles have very high costs. It could be nicer to sell the 35 sports cars and grow apples instead. If you see what I mean. Doesn't mean you have to set lower standards. But it is worth thinking about.

And if you can't make enough money yet at your chosen thing, it's OK to try other things for now. You need to eat. But, one step at a time, you are learning how to make some money being you. It might not be ultra-profitable, but you will have enough.

Being rich is easy anyway (I'm not telling you how to do it!) although it is not very nice sometimes.

To answer the question, if you can't make enough money from doing what you really want to do, you should

Admit it.
or
Do something else.
or
Try harder.

Even to pick something a bit more common like banker, solicitor, etc., they all require training and so on, so success would not be instant. To get a good job you need to be good though. That's probably the key.

Thanks!

Sumatran Rhinoceros

The Sumatran Rhinoceros is the smallest and hairiest rhinoceros in the world.

It is very rare now.

Teaching and Learning

People often ask me, "So what are you doing now, teaching?", and the answer is always no. I never have done any teaching. It seemed to me that many college-leavers who teach do it because they have to do something to make money and not particularly because they have a calling to be teachers. Of course, I think it's fine to do a bit of teaching to see what it's like, if you haven't thought about it. It's difficult! Also, people who want to become teachers will have to learn how to teach, and I suppose a good way to do that is to start practising.

But the idea of teaching instead of doing what you really want to do is not very appealing to me. Or you, I hope!

So, who is a teacher? Someone who can help.

Someone who can help a bit is a bit of a teacher. Someone who can help a lot is a better teacher. Someone who can guide you and help you find your way home is truly a teacher. I said find your way home because I feel that while learning is partly about gathering new techniques and bits of information (like a jigsaw puzzle), the important part of learning is finding out how to be really creative in the way that only you can be. All of that was always in you, as a potential, and somehow you have to find it. When you find it, it is not something new. It is you, the real you. (After that, perhaps you can make something new...)

Anyway, that is your genius. A real teacher knows that you have it, even though you may doubt this, and may even laugh if you hear about it.

He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun him.

He who knows not, and knows that he knows not is simple. Teach him.

He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him.

He who knows, and knows that he knows is wise. Follow him.

(Persian proverb, translated by Richard Francis Burton)