Which holidays?

How do you celebrate holidays?

There are holidays and holy days? Some countries have more of one sort than the other. It depends on where you live.

It also depends on what your religion is, if you have one.

Some holidays are based on Saints days, like St Patrick’s day in Ireland, St Nicholas around the world, many different saints in Christian countries, prophets in others.

Other holidays are based on different deities. From Hindu to Buddhist, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Judaism, they all have holidays, some are celebrated by multiple religions, others are unique to one clique of one subdivision of a religion.

I celebrate Christmas and Easter, but as I’m not a strong believer I do not go into it deeply, I just appreciate the history of the celebration and possibly attend a service at our local church. But I am not intensely involved.

Holidays, as in travelling, or visiting other towns and cities IS something I truly celebrate. With the Covid infection, cost of living crisis and other problems I rarely get time to take a real holiday. As a pet owner, the time we can spend away is limited, I cannot afford to put my pets into accommodation, so we only stay away for short breaks.

So that’s my holiday celebrations, a bit sparse, but I enjoy what I can.

Into the light

The pulse has gone, all is lost. Communication has ended. A dull drone at the end of the phone. A murmuring has slowly died away. No more heat. Soulless sadness. I had to write.

I see your face, but can’t recall it, only imagination holds you in place. Anniversary gone, I must face my own troubles. But I look in the mirror and see your face, then you walk away into the distance, into the light… My sister, goodbye.

Poverty

If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?

I wish I didn’t need to use the word poverty, in this country and about the rest of the world.

Poverty can be relative, a millionaire can feel poor in relation to a billionaire. But that’s not real. Or someone who lives in a first world nation can struggle to survive on a very low income, having to chose between heating and eating.

But I think true poverty is in countries wracked by famine, war, sickness or all three. When starvation is rife, and children are stunted by lack of food and clean water.

And yet there are eighty men in the world that own the same amount of money as half the world’s population. That’s 80 : 4,000,000,000. Each one has an average amount of money equal to 50,000,000 individuals.

If only our world was not so unequal. I’m not talking about complete equality, people would fight to the death over that, but perhaps a bit more generous support for the poor and more taxes for the rich. Perhaps charitable foundations to spread food and medicine, to reduce wars, to care for one another. I know that trickle down economics does not work. The trickle is stemmed by the slightly less wealthy. But somehow we must change things, stop poverty, be fair, and tackle the climate change to which is having the most detrimental effect on the poorest in society.

So instead of poverty my new word would be fairness.

I don’t

Are you holding a grudge? About?

I don’t hold a grudge, it’s too painful, and it makes no sense. If you hold a grudge who are you harming? Yourself. Painful thoughts about someone else don’t harm them, they don’t know about it, but the worm of a grudge bores inside you and makes poison in your thoughts and harms your moods.

Oh I have held grudges before now, and for a long time, but I have it up as a bad idea. Don’t hold grudges, it’s not worth it.

In my dreams

In my dreams I’ve flown to Mars

Months in space beyond our globe.

Spinning microgravity ship

Holds me in its gentle arms

Final days and then descent

Falling through a cold thin air.

Retro rockets saved the day

Landing on a desert of red.

Never going there again

Cost too much and I’m afraid

I’d never spend another night

On Elesyums Planitia’s slopes of red

I’d rather spend my dreams in bed.

An astronaut? Not me, I’ve said.

To be people friendly

How would you design the city of the future?

Enough space to live, to fit in, to get what you need. But not too much, so you crowd everyone else out.

I like the ideas in Japan where space is at a premium so it is designed to be suitable for peoples needs. Things like fold up beds, or rooms that convert from one use to another. Innovation and recycling of materials.

There is a TV programme called George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces, where every week someone is trying to get the most home space out of a tiny space. Some of the solutions are incredible.

Look at the Earth and our cities, we are too wasteful. We want too many things, we want the biggest car or house, without realising less is more. Each of us could accept slightly less and share out assets better!

So town planners need to consider the resources we have, the cost of living, how things can fit together to make things better (or worse). Just having a little garden space can be very fulfilling. Life doesn’t have to be awful in cities, but it does need to be less haphazard and more organised, otherwise things tend to the chaotic and entropy builds. Cities fall as well as rise. We need serious thought and planning.

Caring for people

What motivates you?

I think I’ve always cared about people. My mom used to say I had a soft heart. I like films that you would class as weepies, ones that bought a tear to your eyes. I’d sit on the sofa with my mom and have a good cry.

So I’m motivated to try and support people. I wonder if that is just a perpetuation of a female role model ? It certainly was pushed when we had our careers guidance. It was suggested I went into nursing, I which didn’t set well. Why not a doctor? Anyway by then my motivation had changed. I wanted to be an artist, and for forty years I’ve pursued that role. Not to be famous. Not to make money, but to create art (and care about people).

Comparison

I play with these drawings to create a double image of two faces. One side has more texture than the other using different apps.

One side is sharper than the other, the left hand side has been processed through photodirector to add texture.

Does it matter what I did or why? Isn’t it more important to create something? I explain what I’ve done, but is there any significance? I see work in exhibitions wherr the piece of art will have a longwinded explanation of what the Art is about. I like to play and explore, I might not have a specific intention, but I hope what I do has some integrity….

I’m not conservative

What traditions have you not kept that your parents had?

My family were traditionally conservatives. I was bought up to think that socialists were bad and would lead to serious problems for our country. But when I left home I started to see things in a different light. I had to look at how other people lived. There had been a lot of strikes, and people were struggling to survive. I found out things that had never been discussed at home. Thinking and listening to the words of John Lennons song Imagine really got to me. The struggle to manage when I was out of work for a short time. It made me realise how hard life can be for others.

My traditional upbringing included religion. The rules were set. Money had been important, but listening to Jesus teachings after I left home gave me more concerned belief that people deserved better. I became interested in equality for women, and I also supported charities that worked to save nature. I think leaving home gave me insights I would never have had before. It led to arguments with my parent, but I hope I changed her opinions too.

1st time…

For the first time on my blog I had someone leave a rude comment on one of my posts today! They actually told me to ‘f’ off. First I was astonished that I had offended someone so much that they felt this way. Then I wondered how an innocuous and supportive post could elicit that reaction? Is it because I’m a woman and I’m daring to express an opinion? But the person referred to me as male. And as I just use my surname why would they know my gender?

Eventually I logged it as Spam and didn’t actually report the blogger. I just wanted the comment gone. Perhaps I should have done. If I’m being trolled how many others are being too? I will see if it happens again. I spent years moderating websites so it didn’t upset me. It’s just childish. And unusual for Jetpack /WordPress. X