Religions have a lifetime. People don’t really like to think about this because we are always looking for certainty and religions have often offered us some measure of security in our certainty, and the idea that they necessarily grow and fall is not sympathetic to the mind. But actually as we change so do they….
When It’s All A Game
I know we all like playing games of one sort or another and we are taught that engagement with other people in ‘sports’ is a central part of socializing ourselves to living in communities, but when we tend to make ‘everything’ a game we lose sight of what is actually important. In the banking world…
Yehudah ha-Levi
Translated from the original of one of the names held in high regard from the Golden Age of Sephardic Jewry. ………………….. A Love Song “Do you see over my shoulders falling, Snake-like ringlets waving free? Have no fear, for they are twisted To allure you unto me.” Thus she spoke, the gentle dove, Listen…
A Grip Upon Reality
I am rather surprised though I shouldn’t be, at statements about tyrants and leaders generally ‘losing their grip on reality’ when they are faced revolts of any colour and kind. This was said today about Syria and I wonder exactly what it is supposed to mean. I am guessing it means that when a leader’s…
Empowerment of the Individual
So much of the history of political and social development has been around the empowerment of the individual we sometimes fail to recognize that leaders are individuals too. We have argued so long trying to understand why a 100,000 men would follow one man into a war we have not looked long enough at one…
Walter Raleigh
A Farewell to False Love Farewell, false love, the oracle of lies, A mortal foe and enemy to rest, An envious boy, from whom all cares arise, A bastard vile, a beast with rage possessed, A way of error, a temple full of treason, In all effects contrary unto reason. A poisoned serpent covered all…
Cartoon Magic
I have always enjoyed cartoons from the inception of drawing little figures on book pages and flipping them quickly, to the great works of art like Pinocchio from Disney and The Triplets of Belleville which hearkens right back to Fleischer, Popeye and Betty Boop. Part of the attraction is the zany world in which anything…
Heart Or Mind
I saw someone answering a question on a forum suggesting that it will only be when people use their hearts and not their minds that the world will unite. I was instantly sure that this was the wrong way round as the things which cause friction seem to me to be deeply emotional – feelings…
Jerusalem
I have just watched the first two in the new series on BBC4 about Jerusalem and am surprised that it is the same old tired history lesson, albeit this time being nice to everyone probably because the BBC doesn’t want to inspire any anger. I visited Jerusalem in 2008 during the Jewish New Year and…
Defeat Is Not Defeat
At this time of year, and to be honest most other times too, people love to send messages that enthuse and quote anonymous ad nauseam about how to pick yourself up and dust yourself off. Reminding me of the American penchant for ‘life coaches’ from Billy Graham, whom I saw once in Oxford in the…