Tuesday 31 May 2011

GBE 2 - 002 Blog 3 - How do you measure success these days?

'All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man measures up to his father. That's his' - Oscar Wilde.

My father has always been one of my big heroes. He was the son of a coal-miner, who managed to get himself a university education through his own good efforts and the financial help given by the newly created Welfare State set up by the Labour government of the 1940's. He studied at King's College London where he gained a B.Sc in Maths and Physics. He worked for a government-sponsored research laboratory, and was part of the team responsible for eradicating London of its smog in the 1950's, and then went on to develop the technology and dispersant chemicals that would be used to counteract oil-pollution. He was into computers in the age of punched paper tape. To this day we have a family tradition of making a new Christmas star each year out of paper tape (yes even now we have a very adequate supply, lol).

He taught me my love of numbers and mathematics, and one of my earliest childhood memories is of him taking me and my brother down to Stevenage Library, every other week or so, where we would pick out books to read.

I was able to read well and play with numbers before I started school. It was to stand me in good stead. Or it should have done. Unfortunately, life doesn't run like the railways, and my younger brother got killed in a horrific road accident when I was 9. It would be almost 50 years before I finally emerged from the trauma that my brother's death caused.

In between that time, I got married and divorced twice, had a very successful 25 year career in IT, and did my bit for British cultural relations as a Morris dancer, musician and teacher. I was devastating as the Gypsy violinist playing for a group of Morris Dancers that happened upon Albert Square (on the set of BBC soap 'East Enders) in May 1991. Also I was one of the cultural ambassadors who could speak a bit of German, when my Morris dance team, Belchamp Morris, took part in the wilds of the Munich Bier Festival later that same year. Fortunately, there are very few photos remaining of that event **Shudders***

So having realised that there was no star to aim for, where do you go to look for 'success'.

I'm no longer concerned with my own 'success'. I think I did pretty good.
What I'm now mainly concerned with, is the ongoing 'success' of mankind.

We get lots of mythological/religious stories about the 'ending of the days'.
Just last weekend, the world population might have reduced significantly due to 'The Rapture'. I didn't go along with this piece of nonsense, but you never can tell these days.

I'd like to think that mankind can 'triumph' over the ecological problems that have been blindingly obvious to me, for the last 30 years or so.

I'd like to think that mankind can see through the lies that are constantly thrown at us regarding the best way to fund our future.

I have my own ideas on that, which are shared by many around the world.

The most important of which is that wars only profit the arms makers, the military services and the banking elite that pull the strings of government.
The 3 wars that currently being waged - in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, have no credible reason for continuing and need to be stopped immediately. And whatever
you hear, please don't let mankind get suckered into a war with Iran and China.

Will you join me in working for the success of mankind?

Or will we fail?

8 comments:

  1. Wow! A genuine Morris man. You have no idea how impressed I am! Come on, there must be a photo or two left ;)

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  2. I love that you think globally. A lot of folks are concerned mostly with themselves, which doesn't gain them a great deal of respect. Some make a priority of only what is good for their own countries, and sadly, that seems to win them a following. I'm not foolish enough to ignore the fact that I am fortunate to live in a free society, but that doesn't mean for a second that I think the welfare of my country is more (or even equally) important than the welfare of the world. This view isn't particularly popular, but I've never given a fig about whether or not my ideas are popular.

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  3. Mojo, Belchamp Morris did use to have their own website but it was based off the personal BTInternet account of their Bagman, Brian. There were indeed some reasonably embarassing pics from the Munich Bierfest tour there, as well as stills taken from our appearance on East Enders.

    Alas Brian has moved away from the area and is no longer a regular member of the side. The website appears to still be available, but needs a password to view it. I'll try to contact Brian and let you know. My own personal photos have largely been lost following 2 divorces, but I recently posted a pic of me on my original team's 10th birthday celebration tour on my Facebook page.

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150541446485061&set=a.10150541446165061.648638.876995060&type=1&theater

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  4. Yep, I hear you Beth, and have always loved you for holding to your views.

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  5. This is a great post. I like that you are looking toward the success of mankind and have found your success. I hope too for these wars to end ...
    Cheers, Jenn.

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  6. but...you ARE the star : ) ((hugs))

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  7. This is awesome.

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