Now, Jack and Jill provided stuff for scores and scores of kids.
Mrs Jones cooked ingredients in pots and pans with lids.
Mrs Jones, their mother, oversaw the plan,
Used profits for their holidays, made sure they had a tan.
She quite forgot reinvestment to keep business afloat
So sold the lot for little and let others in to gloat
At all the deals they offered kids, though none as good as hers,
But, what the heck, they had some choice or they could wrap up warm in furs.
Kids grew ill from poorer deals and begged for energy,
Mrs Jones just sighed and said, ‘It’s nought to do with me.’
Now parents who were watching this formed a cunning plan.
‘Let’s make our own and share it out, profit everyone.’
Mains suppliers grew quite cross and threatened retribution,
We’ll pull the plug, through others, prior to your distribution.
Some parents feared the threats they made and shunned alternate ways,
Gave license to the bully boys, regret would cloud their days
As pollutants poured in atmosphere from every kind of harm,
Couldn’t see the benefits of water or wind farms.
Instead they let a mighty few, fraught with greed and power,
Reclaim the day, the night, the world, the minutes and the hours.
It came to pass that wars were had to protect the source supply,
Kids sent out, on pretexts, to maintain, reclaim or die.
Some there were who saw the ill of world in domination
To power supplies and oil cartels and bankers, multination.
That such a plan so simple, though requiring thought and vision,
Should wrest their power political, their purpose, point and mission
Drove the owners crazy, lost to right and reason,
‘Lose revenue, supremacy, to whims of nature’s seasons!’
Scuttled to the bunkers and scarpered for the hills,
Parents, kids and governments sighed and swallowed pill.
Tholing status quo as if blinkered by deceit,
Change a liability, back falling at their feet.
Unless, of course, a chance should come to harness once again
The energy from better source, Mother Nature and Just Men,
To seize the wind and fly once more, to aid and water all,
Humility in simplicity, no pride before our fall.
Reduced imprint in ownership of Gaia and all nations,
Positive power in every way, no less than heaven’s creation.
I couldn’t figure out how to write this post. No poetry came to mind at first and I don’t know enough about the intricacies of certain subjects to speak on them without getting into a fankle.
So I figured I’d go for what I’d do with my class or my kids when I’m trying to explain a point where the concept is better served by analogy. I started a little story about Jack and Jill Jones, personifications of the two power companies that once existed in the UK under national ownership until, in its wisdom, the government headed up by one Mrs T (can’t really bear to say her name) decided to sell them off for a song to private ownership. This has happened with all major utilities once owned by the people, now serving shareholders first and ultimately corporate finance whose heavy hand wields the stick capable of influencing decision making in the corridors of power, rightfully belonging to the citizens of a country.
A few months ago I was an undecided voter in the referendum due to take place one week from today. I was waiting to hear something that would convince me. I knew what it was but no one had spoken about it that I was aware of. Then I saw and heard this. That was it for me. Someone else was speaking my vision for me.
This morning I saw and heard this. I thought about it all day and couldn’t shift the belief that with investment, foresight and autonomy to do what is right, the people of Scotland have within their grasp the potential not only to decide their own future but to influence the world in a more positive way. That is what this is about. Positive power.
So I ‘do’ poetry and fantasy and sensuality. A little eroticism goes a long way for me too. I ‘do’ family and politics. And pretty much anything that comes up my humph if the truth be told. And I’m partial to the truth. Even though it hurts sometimes.
There’s something of a crisis occurring on this little planet of ours. And all the sex and romance in the world can’t nullify its presence.
Huge stuff.
Stuff that puts matters of shagging and candlelit dinners into the shadows. Stuff that affects us all. And our kids.
There’s a power battle going on. Yup. Let’s call it evil and good. Devil versus God. Call it what you will. Well, no. For the sake of argument and clarity let’s call it what it is.
It is the battle between selfishness and the well-being of humans as a species.
Have I got that quite right? Let me think. Certain individuals acting individually or corporately to further their own ends here ensuring a world of humanity destined to servitude and alienation from self-determination and continuity of a thinking and free species?
Would that be about right?
Now, I’m no expert on anything. Other than, possibly, the method and manner of primary education and child development. I studied that shit. Well, I passed papers on it. And I’ve practised it for around thirty years. So, something of an expert I’d hazard.
Also, I have to admit, family members (who shall remain nameless) have accused me of having more brains than common sense. I’ve had to own up to that a fair few times I have to admit. Embarrassing moments when, well, never mind when. ‘Nuff said.
So I get that I’m no guru. Nor wizard of any description. I’m not even up on some of the current news happenings because they depress the hell out of me.
But I do know a few things.
I recognise common sense when I see it. I do think. I’m not always right. Although don’t tell my weans and man that.
But there’s an awful lot of stuff coming together for me at the moment.
Oh, first let me warn some people that this could get political.
Sorry, scratch that. It is political. It’s also spiritual. It’s also practical. It has its roots in humanity and a god I believe and trust in. A god who gave us the free will to get on with it. The capacity to think. And a source of love that is endless and self-generating once harnessed.
Now, I know that Cole would maybe have issues with the god part but she’s so cool she’ll allow it. Each to their own as it were. She’s so cool ice freezes further in her presence before melting under her persuasive and reasoned arguments. And the heat of her passion for right. She epitomises for me an upbringing of stellar quality, so obviously surrounded by love and logic that reaches out to embrace humanity and clarify some misguided notions. She wants a better world. Speaks for a better educated populace that is capable of reasoning and value judgements that go beyond myths and legends. Even while she loves and knows the myths that created much of what we believe. How cool is that?
Now I separate here with her on the presence of omnipotent forces. But I also feel that my faith and hers are so similar in essence.
Like Beth, a woman of thought and feeling, I share their desire and hope for a better world to leave our children. For a better world that we can live in right here and now. Beth is so on the mark with common sense and intellect. So practical. And articulate. She’d sure as hell make a better job of this post than me.
Both Beth and Cole have written extensively on education and the demerits of its current state in each of their countries. I’ve written a bit about it myself.
Aspirationally, every culture once sought to educate their children to the point, at least, of literacy and numeracy. Teachers engaged in this as a priority. Some took rather strange routes to achieving this aim I grant you and not all of them laudable.
But, in literacy especially, and in exposure to thoughts written and recorded from the beginnings of time we learn about our world. In the humanities we reach and delve into the commonality of human experience and seek our place in becoming explorers of a brave new world.
Unless, of course, education is dumbed down. Unless, of course, it benefits some higher authority to produce semi-literate individuals whose driving force is survival and fear. Or articulate beings but whose motivations are other than communal growth and welfare. Where is the brave new world and the hope of all our futures? Where are the original thinkers of a new dawn as each generation must prove to be?
Where is the action?
Currently, governments the world over are being manipulated and, more likely, controlled by bodies that do not represent the people they were elected to represent.
Yeah, yeah, conspiracy, blah.
Well if I’m paranoid it’s only because I can tell when some big bastard is following me. I hear them breathing, I sense their presence, I see their footprints when I look behind me. I know when I’m about to be shafted. The signs are there. Let’s face it, it’s not really ‘about to be’. We are currently being screwed by entities that exist to serve self. These entities, however, are no demons wrought from mythology. Rather, they are the personification of the greed and selfishness inherent in us all if we choose not to control those instincts for a more valid and worthwhile national and global state of affairs.
Now I don’t know about you but when I succumb to pleasures of the flesh I say if, I say when, I say who, I say yes. Or no. Even in the lawfully binding contract of marriage I have authority over my own person.
I want to view the family as the epitome of government.
OK not all families operate under the same rules. But the common factor usually, or ideally, is a desire to further the individual membership while retaining a sense of the whole and working together towards an advancement of individual talents and worth, while not destroying the fabric of the whole support system.
It doesn’t always work. More’s the pity.
But, in whatever form the family takes, where there is love and a desire to cultivate that love through education and acknowledgement of its intrinsic, unique and constituent parts there is hope. Hope that new and brave ideas germinate and take root. Hope that the world continues. That it recognises that humanity is but a blip on the planet and, without intervention on all our parts, the world may continue but we may not. Not in any sense worthy of recording in history.
Gawd, I’ve gone off on one.
This is so not what where this post was leading.
Let’s see if I can break the habits of a lifetime.
Power.
Literally and metaphorically.
Is it just me or has anyone else spotted the obvious?
On this gorgeous big planet of ours there is a renewable source of energy in every country. Every single one. Name one where the sun doesn’t shine. Or wind doesn’t blow. Or waters don’t flow. Even if we only have one out of three we have the capacity to generate power repeatedly.
We in Scotland would have to depend more on the water and wind option. But I’m good with that. Might as well get some benefit from the crap weather.
Tell me. Is there a place on earth where some renewable form of energy does not exist?
Might the ability and will to generate it be the answer to some of the conflicts that abound worldwide?
Yes there will always be greedy bastards who want to make more from whatever sources they can conjure up, manufacture trouble where peace could exist. Carve out of the earth cash and chaos where order and sustenance could prevail.
But that’s kind of where education comes in. If we know. If we care. If we have the will.
I knew I’d get there in the end.
Just always takes a bit of time with me.
And I know. Before anyone says it. It has been mentioned by family members (who shall still remain nameless) that I could personally supply the grid with enough air to supply the needs of Scotland for generations to come. But I’m kinda good with that too.
Now, Cliff Richards kind of says what I’m saying and you’ve got to have a laugh in the midst of all the serious stuff. So, If you can take his words seriously while doubling up at the costume and dance routine so much the better. Who knew, Steve, that the Eurovision Song Contest would feature in one of my posts? Not me, that’s for sure. But more power to it if, occasionally, we get classics like this!
Please take the time if you can to check out the links mentioned. You won’t be sorry. The world needs people of this calibre. I’m proud to follow their thoughts and journey.
scottishmomus 