Responsibility

In my presentations of flirtation with philosophy I make use of a lot of TED talks to encourage thought and participation. I have just listened to a woman talking on the three injustices of the past three centuries. in the 19th century it was slavery, in the 20th totalitarianism and this century the 21st it is oppression of women. Following her travels to various parts of the world, Sheryl Wu Dunn illustrates her talk with the stories of women she had met and finished her talk with an anecdote of a woman who had seen things no human being should see and who had remained strong until she returned home to New York where looking out of her window she saw a bird feeder. She broke down under the realization that we provide birds with food in winter.The contrast for her was too great to bear.

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THE VATICAN & MONEY

THERE IS AN EXCELLENT CONCISE ARTICLE ON THIS SUBJECT BY PAUL COLLINS AT
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=32675

Am I or am I not?

I have noted a Post from IdoLanuel the author of 2Baware who is also a Blogger.
He runs workshops on Self Awareness.
This interested me enough to write to him.
I told him that in my vanity I believe myself to be self aware and asked him what single question I could pose myself to counter it.
He replied ask “Who believes that I am self aware?”
I replied to this “Does it matter?”
He replied “Nothing else matters”
Any other advice might be welcome but it must be a single question please!

Spaced Out

The excitement of today’s landing on Mars brought home to me the inexhaustive list of interesting people and events which have filled my life of 81 years.Stars of stage and screen, the greats of Hollywood, Sports stars, the giants of tennis, football, boxing, cricket and Olympic fame, the six Popes, the five Kings and Queens of England.
Politicians like Churchill, Gandhi, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Thatcher, Stalin, the Nazi mob and so on.
But it doesn’t stop there. Included also are the Battle of Britain, London burning, Dunkirk, Pearl harbour,D-Day,the re-taking of Europe, the iron curtain and its fall, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the destruction of the twin towers on 9/11.
Then the advent of television, the mobile phone,the new technology of computers, the development of commercial flight, the first Sputnik, the first animal then the first man in space, the landing of man on the Moon, the dispatch of a space ship to Jupiter and beyond and now the brilliance of those responsible for the safe landing of Curiosity on Mars.
If that is my life nearing its end what extraordinary people and events will my grandchildren witness?
Finally as a throw away thought, will my Blog survive in a cosmic library to be available for research in 5012!k,

PROCLAIM

On Thursday I am looking forward to attending the PROCLAIM conference in Sydney. The publicity about it includes the following:-
Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, has accepted an invitation from Australia’s Bishops to be the keynote speaker at the PROCLAIM 2012 conference on the new evangelisation.

PROCLAIM 2012, to be held from Thursday 9 to Saturday 11 August 2012, is about helping Catholics to respond to Pope Benedict XVI’s call to engage in the New Evangelisation, to reach out with the message of Jesus to our people and our culture in new ways. It will be held at The Concourse, Chatswood.

Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Fisichella as the President of the newly formed Pontifical Council in October 2010, to lead the task of re-evangelising the secularized countries of the world. Archbishop Fisichella’s visit to Australia is just eight weeks before the crucial Synod on the New Evangelization in Rome.

At PROCLAIM 2012 Archbishop Fisichella will be joined here by a number of other excellent international and local Australian speakers who will share their expertise to encourage participants in their personal and community living and sharing of the faith.

PROCLAIM 2012 is being organised for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference by the National Office for Evangelisation and Catholic Mission. It’s theme is based on Jesus’ words: “What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops” (Mt 10:27).

Networking Individualism

I recommend Psyche’s Circuitry.
It is a Blog written by a psychologist being his thoughts on growing up and growing old in the digital age. He quotes from a book by Rainee & Wellman and includes the following passage by Wellman relating to families which I particularly like.

” Families are also functioning more as a network than a group. We see each other less often than several decades ago, but actually are in closer communication due to mobile communication technologies (i.e., we’re emailing , texting, and calling each other a lot). Some have referred to the constant awareness that we can have of others as an electronic leash (Wellman, on his website, compares this to the ball and chain of the past).”

THINKS!

I have just read that Thomas Friedman, a journalist and author said in the New York Times:
“BIG BREAKTHROUGHS HAPPEN WHEN WHAT IS SUDDENLY POSSIBLE MEETS WHAT IS DESPERATELY NECESSARY”
Well I thought that is a fairly profound statement and it should be possible to apply it to a number of desperate situations prevailing around the world today. I am going to muse on this and publish anything I think worthwhile..so don’t hold your breath!
If you have any ideas to help my thoughts along they will of course be very welcome.

My Daughter’s Art..

The whole at katyaknight.yolasite.com

Music in the Family

My brother Philip who is a Celtic Bard in Cornwall UK has recently written music and lyrics and is the singer on a new album of Cornish (Celtic)songs which is produced by his son Paul who works in the music business.The whole may be found on http://youtu.be/EE5FkrCOj8Q

Another two of my nephews Jonathan and his brother Josh
are with a leading Toronto Canada band SOULSTACK

The Boy’s Dream

My grandson Jake has just opened his own Coffee and Tea House in Sydney in the underpass from Central station to the TAFE