this is a strange sort of letter to find myself writing but in one way or another everyone on this e mail address list has taught me some valuable lessons and provided me with challanges friendship and support collectively the sum of all my intereractions and transactions with everyone on this list and plenty of others aside represent the human environment that has been a large part of my life, in some cases since childhood. What I have been learning on a pretty large and steep curve the past few years and increasingly quickly the past few months and weeks is how the Human environment in which I have existed has really effected my life outside of the wider physical environment. Anyway I want first to say thankyou for being there without the human environment I would not exist or certainly existence may have been rather less meaningfull certainly less interesting.
The past few days I have had a break from playing my guitar and my music studies and really knuckled down to the big question of what I want to do next. How Johanna and I and Rasmus and Rhiannon can best contribute to our new surroundings and environment here in Sweden and naturally at such times it is sensible to reflect and look backwards to consider what one might usefully re learn or notice from the path one has recently been along and for me that has led to a realisation that what I want and fortunately what Johanna wants as well is to focus on a sustainable future almost a self sufficient self provisioning type of life where we contribute our skills and work to our local society again in sustainable ways this is as much from a view point of that we have discovered that that is what has made us happy over the past year and was what we had kind of had a notion to do in Bristol but unfortunately as we fell into that realisation by accident rather than design and that was perhaps not the best place then to try to do it. Still no regrets we still think of Bristol and all we dealt with there affectionately and with respect even where i particularly might disagree with some decisions and points of view that differed to my own.
I hadn’t planned to write a letter like this today but I just listened to a series of things today one was the Deja vu episode of James burkes connections the next was an interview about James Burkes project the knowledge web with James Burke and then another broadcast from that same web station that the Knowledge web broadcast came from which discussed Peace as something that should be approached as something to grow in its own eco system as opposed to something growing out of and as a punctuation mark and alternative until the next War. So why would that lead me to write this e-mail?
Well its about starting a conversation people like David Cameron or Ed Milliband or Tim Clegg say they want to start a conversation with the electorate but seem more interested in the concept every 4 years or so rather than at other times the same in America. I get the sense from the many guitar playing friends i have made in the States through the Internet that they feel an ongoing conversation would be a good idea and I figured if i couldn’t feel I was having a conversation with Say Liam Fox ( Ironically Liam my last local MP is actually Defence Secretary ) then we really all ought to be having the conversation together not on a political level but a philisophical one. In the modern age I as some one that has had the luxury of so much time have as an outsider seen how little time most other people are left to spend with their families to relax and just to enjoy and listen and talk with each other I know its probably true to say that time is the thing that we all definitely know will run out for us all in the end but it runs out at the end of each day as well. Well of course all sorts of corny environmental metaphors can flow from that but my main point is that actions speak louder than words and of course words speak louder than unexpressed thoughts so I guess I’m saying Hello Thank you for making my environment bearable in fact alot more than bearable but I hope you know what I mean, and the action i propose is to do with this..
I have come across a Guy called David Shines he goes by the name of the spiritual entertainer on you Tube and I read on his Blog two days ago about an Alternative voting System mooted in Israel I think whereby government would be by discussion and voting on the internet and as the people who had the idea realised it probably could never work it would still be possible to do it as a kind of constant opinion Poll I guess, and I think we are supposed to think opinion polls are important they are usually quoted by Politicians anyway. I thought it was a good idea and thought i’d pass it on and also say that I am concerned about the environment both socially and physically and wondered how others were dealing with the same feelings of wanting to express the view that something concrete should be done but couldn’t see anyone offering a route. Most of us re cycle I know but that isn’t really what i had in mind I have a more concrete commitment and inclusive plan of action in mind that we could all agree to personally or at least contribute to a concensus which I think would be fairly broad and well supported. I am very skeptical of the motives of Carbon trading for instance and I have lost all faith in both the UK system of Government and its Banking system and really hope there is a vote for AV which might signal to our political leaders that the hung parliament was not the end of the British electorates frustrations at the balls up they have made as a political class of our country over the past 30 odd years. The sensible voices the calm and reasoned voices are so overwhelmed by the glitz and sound bites and advertising gloss these days “where’s the Meat” thats what i’m saying anyway I respect all the people on this list and will be posting this in my Blog which no one reads but which I write as a self therapy but as I want to hide nothing from myself I am happy to have it there for anyone to read afterall they are only my perceptions and thoughts and feelings and how can I expect my environment to interact with me sympathetically and sustainably if I do not show outwardly where my stregnths and weaknesses are internally.
Some of this may sound a bit new age touchy feely It isn’t intended to be I am seriously just saying can we all have this conversation and share some ideas about issues that are bigger than our personal relationships and individual interests
I care about all of you and your families and your environments and well beings and as part of your environment i want to know how I can make sure I can contribute or at least not make yours obviously worse now or even down the line it strikes me that because we do not ask and are not asked these questions often enough at all levels of our personal and business lives that that is where the missing link is and where the damage gets done so even if you don’t think having the conversation with me is the best idea maybe have it with those closest to you.Its James Burkes Fault he mentions 20 degrees of separation in his interview and points out that it was our grand fathers grand fathers grand fathers grand father that was around at the start of the industrial revolution I reckon that if everyone has a good think and a proper chat we can agree what we think needs to be and can be done.what do you think needs to be done?
http://www.stranova.com/Podcasts/SSE/SSE15.mp3
Sorry to intrude on your time with such a long e-mail but Hi anyway I’m well and I hope that you are too.
