Herbert Henry Asquith

Guys, I only just heard that beacons are going to be lit for the queen's 90th birthday, I would have loved to go to one at one of the hills locally like the one I went to last week and completely failed to get a photoshoot due to bad weather.
http://dry-valleys.tumblr.com/post/142854935559/when-i-did-the-two-saints-way-i-got-waylaid-by

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So have a poem instead.
From Clee to heaven the beacon burns,
The shires have seen it plain,
From north and south the sign returns
And beacons burn again.

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Look left, look right, the hills are bright,
The dales are light between,
Because 'tis fifty years to-night
That God has saved the Queen.

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Now, when the flame they watch not towers
About the soil they trod,
Lads, we'll remember friends of ours
Who shared the work with God.

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To skies that knit their heartstrings right,
To fields that bred them brave,
The saviours come not home to-night:
Themselves they could not save.

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It dawns in Asia, tombstones show
And Shropshire names are read;
And the Nile spills his overflow
Beside the Severn's dead.

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We pledge in peace by farm and town
The Queen they served in war,
And fire the beacons up and down
The land they perished for.

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"God save the Queen" we living sing,
From height to height 'tis heard;
And with the rest your voices ring,
Lads of the Fifty-third.

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Oh, God will save her, fear you not:
Be you the men you've been,
Get you the sons your fathers got,
And God will save the Queen.

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I certainly would like to master a subject, because I think my worry is that I'm an ocean a molecule deep :(

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One of the things I'd like to do with unlimited time and money is go to graduate school, I've never done it because I work in accounts (I haven't got any accounting qualifications but I'm quite good at the job) and I probably wouldn't get a job out of grad school, but I'd like to just go anyway :)

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I'd like to study the office of the 20th century prime minister, Herbert Henry Asquith. I'd spend my days lost in Irish Home Rule and become an expert on it. But I haven't really got time, so I just become a jack of all trades!

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I'm going next week to listen to a speech by a real expert in his field.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/25/the-romanovs-1613-1918-simon-sebag-montefiore-review

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Apparently at the launch party, he trolled the guests by serving them extra-strong drinks and they all got drunk :)
But I wouldn't know, I wasn't invited...

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Yes, certainly. My favourite environmental book (I've got several, and I'd advise conservatives to read Green Philosophy by Roger Scruton, an old-time paleoconservative) has to be Feral by George Monbiot. I'm really inspired and I'm joining treesforlife.org.uk to plant trees in September.
I'm massively looking forward to bluebell season but we need to keep this in mind.
http://www.wildculture.com/article/george-monbiot-feral-wild-boar/1209
"The British woodland floor is peculiar in that it is often dominated by a single species, such as dog’s mercury, wild garlic, bluebells, bracken, hart’s tongue, male fern or brambles. These monocultures, like fields of wheat or rapeseed, may in some cases be the result of human intervention, such as the extirpation of the boar. To visit the Białowieża forest in eastern Poland, which is as close to being an undisturbed ecosystem as any remaining in Europe, in May, when dozens of flower species jostle in an explosion of colour, is to see how much Britain is missing, and the extent to which the boar transforms its environment.
I understand people’s concerns about the loss of those uninterrupted carpets of bluebells that have made some British woods famous. They are, I agree, stunning, just as fields of lavender or flax are stunning, but to me they are an indication not of the wealth of the ecosystem but of its poverty.
One of the reasons why bluebells have been able to crowd out other species in the woods in which they grow is because the animal which previously kept them in check no longer roams there. Wild boar and bluebells live happily together, but perhaps not wild boar and only bluebells. By rooting and grubbing in the forest floor, by creating little ponds and miniature wetlands in their wallows, boar create habitats for a host of different plants and animals, a shifting mosaic of tiny ecological niches, opening and closing as the sounders pass through. Boar are the untidiest animals to have lived in this country since the ice age. This should commend them to anyone with an interest in the natural world."

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I'm an agnostic on the question of religion but when I was reading The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley I came across this quote by someone called William Law, who I haven't read but it seems he was onto something.
"Would you know whence it is that so many false spirits have appeared in the world, who have deceived themselves and others with false fire and false light, laying claim to information, illumination, and openings of the divine Life, particularly to do wonders under extraordinary calls from God? It is this: They have turned to God without turning from themselves; would be alive to God before they are dead to their own nature. Now religion in the hands of self, or corrupt nature, serves only to discover vices of a worse kind than in nature left to itself. Hence are all the disorderly passions of religious men, which burn in a worse flame than passions only employed about worldly matters; pride, self-exaltation, hatred and persecution, under a cloak of religious zeal, will sanctify actions which nature, left to itself, would be ashamed to own".

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I adore audiobooks! When I'm walking or cycling I obviously can't read paper books, so I listen to them instead.

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When I was doing www.twosaintsway.org.uk I loved listening to a book about Samuel Johnson (if you've never heard of him, I consider "Rasselas" his best work) and he was born and bred in Lichfield, the final town along the route, and there's an excellent museum to him there.
When I go past a place, I remember what was happening in my books or music when I passed there last, for instance last week I was with my friend and I said that's where Titus Price killed himself in September, and he had no idea what I meant until I had to explain it was in a book, "Anna of the Five Towns" by Arnold Bennett :)

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My favourite such experience was listening to the book of Ecclsiastes by an excellent reciter called Glenn Hascall (a god reciter makes the difference) whilst doing this:
http://dry-valleys.tumblr.com/post/138208268289/no-eternal-reward-will-forgive-us-now-for-wasting

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That was a good question, thanks!

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I think people idealise others because they feel unsure of themselves, which may be a good or a bad thing:
-deferring to someone's expert knowledge of an issue is good because it leads us to be humble, make better decisions and learn ourselves.
- out of insecurity, idealising someone who doesn't deserve it leads to dependence on that person and being led astray.

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So it all depends. I know some people will make me think twice and if they disagree with me, I'll examine why they think that and whether I'm wrong. But I hope no to unrreasonably idealise someone and as for being idealised myself?

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“It's the story of my life. You see, the quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead. Now, as you look through this document you'll see that I've underlined all the major decisions I ever made to make the stand out. They're all indexed and cross-referenced. See? All I can suggest is that if you take decisions that are exactly opposite to the sort of decisions that I've taken, then maybe you won't finish up at the end of your life" --she paused, and filled her lungs for a good should--"in a smelly old cave like this!”

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One of the most important lessons I would say to people comes from fiction.

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The city I live in is very poor and deprived and has built up a bad reputation, when you tell people you come from here you can just see the expression on their faces...
... so a lot of young people move out, try to get rid of their accents and generally deny who they are to gain middle-class respectability. And they think it's the only way to succed in life, but I wouldn't call it success if you turn your back on who you are.

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In "Paris", a glorious book by Edward Rutherfurd, in 1299 Jacob ben Jacob hears from his Christian friend that the Jews are going to be persecuted and driven out, so he pretends to become a Christian. The rabbi confronts him thus:

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He could not tell the rabbi the truth. And as he stared at this man he did not like, he felt a sudden and terrible guilt. He longed to cry out: “I did it because the Jews are going to be expelled. I did it to save my family.” But he could not. There lay his greatest crime. He was doing nothing to warn his own people. He was going to wait as their doom approached, watch while they lost everything, including their homes, and were cast out to wander the world.

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“Will you betray us then, Jacob ben Jacob?” the rabbi asked bitterly. “Will you be another Nicolas Donin?”

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This was a searing accusation. For every Jew knew that Nicolas Donin, the Franciscan who’d persuaded Christendom to burn the Talmud, had been born a Jew himself. Nothing was more terrible, it was often said, than the vengeance of the traitor.

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“Never!” he cried. He was deeply hurt. But it was the rabbi’s parting words that would haunt him.

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“You call me a fool,” the rabbi said. “But it is you who are the fool, Jacob. You convert. You join the Christians. And you think: Now I shall be safe. But you are wrong. This I know, and this I tell you.” He shook his head. “You are a Jew, Jacob. And no matter what you do, no matter what the Christians say—believe me—you will never be safe.”

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And I think this is what people need to know. You will always be you, some people are going to hate you for no reason because of your class, race, gender, and it's not worth trying to gain such people's approval and you're better off without them.

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In the end Jacob understands this and follows the rest of his community into exile rather than live a fake life among people who don't really accept him. And I wouldn't compare my situation to his but it's what I want to do too.

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I'm completely for them, the anti-vaxxers are some of the people who make me most angry, especially as someone on the autistic spectrum faced with the vaccines cause autism frauds. A child with asd should be supported and appreciated for the contributions they can make, morethan neurotypical people if the environment is right.

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The implications that people with asd are freaks who have no place in the organic, natural society that anti-vaxxers want. But the only harm that is being done is to the children who aren't vaccinated and to their friends who are all put at risk when herd immunity is weakened.

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I certainly think anti-vaxxers and people like Matthias Roth should be prosecuted for basically luring people to their deaths, I normally try to see the other person's point of view but I am furious about this. I recommend Bad Science by Ben Goldacre on the matter.

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