GOOD FRIDAY (II)

“Where man sees but withered leaves, God sees sweet flowers growing.” - Albert Laighton

Today is the Greek Orthodox Good Friday, which is the most solemn and sorrowful day in the Christian calendar. No work should be done on this day of prayer and reflection when one should mourn for Christ’s death on the cross. No iron tools should be handled and hammers and nails are to be avoided especially it is said, lest you crucify Christ anew. If clothes are washed on this day, a member of the family will die. As the clothes hang out to dry they will be spotted with blood. This belief is from the apocryphal story that relates of a washerwoman mockingly throwing dirty washing water on Christ on his way to Calvary. Parsley seed can be planted on this day, provided a wooden spade is used.

The Greek Orthodox religion is particularly rich in tradition on this day. During the whole day, church masses are said with the most moving and mournful chanting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZm7SY-DqkM). The church icons are covered with dark purple cloth and the mighty church bells fall silent until Easter Sunday. The Epitaphios (a symbolic representation of Christ's bier), is decorated with flowers and the faithful parade past it in order to worship a embroidered icon with the dead Christ depicted on it. On Good Friday evening, the Epitaphios is ceremoniously carried through the parish in a magnificent candlelit procession, followed by the priest and the entire congregation who hold lit candles.

Fasting is mandatory and only fruit, vegetables and boiled pulses are to be eaten without any trace of oil. It is customary to drink some vinegar on this day to remember the vinegar Christ was given to drink on the cross when he was athirst.

POSTCARD FROM BRISBANE

“We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” - Hilaire Belloc

In Brisbane for work for a few days. A very busy day today but at least I got the chance to enjoy a little of the glorious weather as I had a few meetings outside the campus. The hustle and bustle of the city was quite remarkable today and there also seemed to be a general holiday air. Quite a few tourists were around but even the locals were very lively. School holidays are still on and several children were making their presence felt in no uncertain ways…

As I got up very early this morning an early night is called for. Hence the microblog…
Enjoy your day (or night, as the case may be)!

A POEM PAST

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." – LP Hartley

Running after the Past

A walk in well worn paths
Shaded by the fragrant roses
Of the passage of time.
Familiar faces, accustomed places
Sunlight and laughter
Remembered embraces.

Your eyes are sadder, maybe wiser
By memories of old mistakes,
Ageing misunderstandings
Finally understood;
But your hand reluctant
To stop history repeating itself.

You yearn for the past,
Your remembrances precious:
Of friends, sweet wine, good times.
You yearn for a past
When I was writhing in agonies
Impaled like a butterfly by the pin of your love.
Each passing second a tear
Each of your smiles a dagger
Each of your nostalgic moments one of my hells.

THE POISON TREE

“Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.” - Abraham Lincoln

Last Saturday a 19-year-old gunman opened fire in a vocational college in Athens, wounding three people before taking his own life. He left a note accusing his fellow students of picking on him and an even more graphic document of his planned actions on his internet site. An 18-year-old fellow student of his was seriously injured and two men outside the college building were shot and lightly injured. Stabbings at Greek schools have happened previously, but such a shooting is unprecedented.

The gunman was an immigrant from the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia. His notes said he couldn’t take it any more and he wanted to kill as many as possible to take revenge for perceived wrongs against him. The shooter was armed with two handguns and a knife was found in his bag. He shot his fellow student four times at about 8:45 am, a quarter of an hour after lessons had started. He shot two workers at a nearby shop who tried to stop him while he was running out. He then went to a park close to the school and shot himself in the head.

This is a shooting following a recent surge of bloody bank robberies, homicides, muggings and violent burglaries in Greece. The country has no history of violent crime and the incidents have overwhelmed the country’s conservative government, which has been shaken by a series of financial scandals and holds a slim one-seat majority in parliament. Last week, unknown gunmen shot and injured two policemen who stopped them for a routine check in Athens, while recently a gunman fired shots in an Athens hospital during a bank robbery. In addition to the increase in crime, police have had to deal with a surge in political violence by anarchist and far-left groups, who frequently carry out arson attacks on symbols of state authority, banks and foreign diplomats' cars.

Such events in Greece lately have caused quite a great deal of consternation for the locals who now not only have to cope with a financial crisis of unprecedented severity, but now also have to live in an increasingly violent society, which seems to be becoming more unstable. This is a phenomenon that we are witnessing around the world. Wherever one turns there are such reports of violent crimes, robberies, senseless murders, pointless acts of intimidation and brutal aggression. Similar crimes in the USA, in Germany, in Finland, in Australia, where young men have gone on a bloody rampage in attacks that mimic one another and copy video games, movies, TV shows…

How many of our young people who are growing up in a society that is losing its collective mind in ever-increasing numbers, find that the only way to be noticed, to become a “hero”, to be strong and powerful is through the agency of a gun? How many people find it easier to squeeze a trigger and murder, than to wield a pen, use a tool, or work hard in order to contribute something to the whole of society and be thus “noticed”? How many find solace in the blood lust that a gun can engender? To kill is to be in command. To be able to kill commands everyone’s respect…

What next? Anarchy? Lynch law? Mob rule? Gangs? Pirates? Murderers ruling with an iron fist and a gun ready to fire? Next? Not so for I believe it’s all happening around us presently. Where are we going in our collective insanity? Can we stop ourselves on the brink of disaster before it’s too late?

MOVIE MONDAY - HULA GIRLS

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” - Japanese Proverb

This weekend we watched a wonderful 2006 Japanese movie directed by Sang-il Lee, who also co-wrote it. It is the poignant comedy/drama “Hula Girls”. The film is simple in its premise, but touches subtly on many important social issues including progress, change, unemployment, social inequality, and what it means to be an “outsider”.

The film is set in 1965 in rural northeastern Japan, in a small mining town where almost all of the residents live employed by the coal mine. The changing times and the advent of oil will force the closure of the coal mine and about 2,000 people will lose their jobs. The mining company, in an effort to provide something for the town and give some means of a livelihood to about 500 people, plans to open a “Hawaiian Centre” complete with palm trees and hula dancers right in the middle of the harsh winter climate of Iwaki. The union bosses are set dead against the plan but some girls decide they want to become hula dancers and join a class that is to be taught by a professional dancer who arrives from Tokyo (fleeing from her creditors, it appears). The film depicts the struggle of the young girls to become accomplished dancers amidst an inimical climate, with even their families against them. Kimiko, Sanae and Yasuri are the leaders of the girls and Mrs Hirayana, the dancer from Tokyo first confronts them and then wins them over.

The film is a tender memoir of a different time and pays tribute to the fascination the Japanese have with things Hawaiian. Like the Peter Cattaneo film “The Full Monty”, “Hula Girls” looks at a group of misfits who conquer their insecurities and problems through learning of a particular skill or utilising a hidden talent (in this case, hula dancing). The film was inspired by the real life Jouban Hawaiian Centre (at present called 'Spa Resort Hawaiians') in Iwaki City, Fukushima, which was developed in 1961 in an attempt to stimulate the local prefecture’s economy.

Yû Aoi who plays Kimiko, one of the hula girls, does a wonderful job and is perfectly counterfoiled against Matsuyuki Yasuko who plays the dancing instructress from Tokyo. Kimiko’s mother (and union leader) is also well cast and the supporting actors all make for a good show. The music is well chosen and in keeping with the theme, while the cinematography is also very good. The dancing is excellent and one must remember that this is the Japanese interpretation of Pacific island dancing and even though many Hawaiians may object to the authenticity of the dances, the Japanese versions are a quintessential distillation of hula dancing which is presented in a marvellous way. The final dance sequence is quite stunning.

Although the film contains many humorous moments, its dramatic elements are more of its strength and there are many poignant and teary moments in it. Overall, an unexpectedly enjoyable film that surprised and delighted us.

ART SUNDAY - EASTER (I)

“Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
 Death is strong, but Life is stronger.” - Phillips Brooks

Happy Easter!

For Art Sunday today, a topical painting, the resurrection of Jesus Christ by Hans Memling. Hans Memling (1430?-94) was known as a master of Flemish painting, however, he was born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt am Main in Germany. Memling first established himself as a painter in Brussels and his work shows the strong influence of Rogier van der Weyden in style and composition. This is the reason Memling is thought to have studied under the older artist.

In about 1466 Memling moved to Bruges, where his career prospered. Like many other Flemish masters, Memling painted with glowing colours and fine craftsmanship. Unlike most artists, his style varied little throughout his career. Many of Memling's well-known religious works were painted for the Hospital of St. John in Bruges.

Memling was a master of portraiture. The faces he painted with careful detail glow with life and the character of each sitter is subtly suggested. In addition to the portraits Memling painted for the notables of Bruges, he also received commissions from foreign visitors such as Tommaso Portinari of the Florentine Medici. Memling died in Bruges on August 11, 1494.
“The Resurrection”, with the “Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian” and “The Ascension”
Triptych, Oil on Wood. Central panel 62 x 45 cm; Wings 62 x 19 cm; Musee du Louvre, Paris.

EASTER SATURDAY BACH

“The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.” - Seneca

For Song Saturday today, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750). It is from his Cantata for the First Day of Easter: “Christ lag in Todes Banden” (BWV 4; Christ Lay in Death’s Bonds).
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra - Ton Koopman, Director

4. Versus 3: Choral Tenor
Jesus Christus, Gottes Sohn,
An unser Statt ist kommen
Und hat die Sünde weggetan,
Damit dem Tod genommen
All sein Recht und sein Gewalt,
Da bleibet nichts denn Tods Gestalt,
Den Stach'l hat er verloren.
Halleluja!

4. Verse 3: Chorale Tenor
Jesus Christ, God's son,
Has come to our abode,
And has done away with all sin,
Thereby taking from death
All his rights and power,
Nothing remains but death's form;
Death has lost his sting.
Hallelujah!



If you can, listen to the whole of this cantata, it is truly marvellous!

The image above is Bernaert van Orley’s centre panel of Christ’s entombment from the Haneton Triptych (Oil on oak, 87 x 108,5 cm; Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels).

GOOD FRIDAY (I)

“God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.” - Martin Luther

It is Good Friday today for the Western Churches and Easter Weekend tomorrow. Greek Easter is one week later this year, creating once again quite a disruption. It is a pity that the Eastern and Western churches still disagree on this after so many centuries since the schism. As if the world didn’t have greater problems to resolve, but rather watch the bickering of the clergy over vernal equinoxes, Julian and Gregorian calendars and what full moon to accept as the one that is the Paschal one. Oh for good sense to prevail! And even better sense would dictate that Easter be celebrated as a fixed feast, on the third Sunday of April every year!

Still, I suppose one may celebrate twice and partake of the traditions of both churches. It may be a small revenge, this tactic. I spent the whole day at home today working away on my book. I managed to get a lot done, but there is more to do, yet. Tradition in the West says today that we consume hot cross buns. Hot Cross Buns are baked on this day in memory of the kindly woman who gave Christ a loaf of bread on His way to Calvary. It is said that no bread or buns baked on this day will grow mouldy.

Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs
With one-a-penny, two-a-penny, Hot Cross Buns
Whose virtue if you’ll believe what’s said
They’ll not grow mouldy like ordinary bread.

Hot Cross Buns protect sailors from shipwreck and houses from fire. Good Friday bread should be dried and kept for if is soaked in milk and consumed will cure all sorts of stomach ailments. Russian tradition and religious observance forbid baking on Good Friday.

Traditionally, fish is consumed on this day and this is even something that here in Australia many people still maintain as a tradition, even though they may not be religious. In fact, very often on many another Friday, the fish eating tradition remains and quite a few people will go and buy fish and chips routinely on Friday nights.

I hope you had a peaceful and relaxing day today and if you are celebrating Easter over this weekend, have a Happy Easter!

PHOBIAS

“There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.” - André Gide

Almost everyone in the world has a fear or two of one kind or another. However, it is relatively few that suffer from a true phobia, which is defined as an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something. Some people really dread something so much that their whole life becomes a nightmare as they try to avoid confronting this phobia of theirs. Less common is the condition of polyphobia, which means to have more than one irrational fear. Extremely rare, but quite bizarre is the person who suffers from an antinomial phobia. For example, vestiophobia (fear of clothes) and gymnophobia (fear of nudity), or another example, scotophobia (fear of darkness) and photophobia (fear of light).

Some phobias have been with mankind ever since it evolved with a mind to become irrational. For example, brontophobia (fear of thunder), acrophobia (fear of heights), and ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), ailurophobia (fear of cats), arachnophobia (fear of spiders), which must have haunted some people since the beginning of humankind’s history. On the other hand, new discoveries and technology bring about new phobias: Electrophobia (fear of electricity), motorphobia (fear of automobiles), and aviophobia (fear of flying). Nucleomituphobia (fear or nuclear weapons) developed quickly after the fateful detonations of the atomic bomb in Japan at the end of WWII, and proliferated during the cold war years. Cyberphobia (fear of computers) and technophobia (fear of technology) developed rapidly with the introduction of the personal computer and the plethora of devices that the new technology developed quickly afterward.

People have suffered through history from pathophobia (fear of disease), monophobia (fear of being alone), agoraphobia (fear of being in a crowd), and haemophobia (fear of blood). Some have been plagued through the ages by omiliophobia (fear of public speaking), algophobia (fear of pain), taphephobia (fear of being buried alive), or nebulophobia (fear of fog). Scholiophobia (fear of school), thalassophobia (fear of the sea) and triskaidekatophobia (fear of the number 13) have also been around for some time.

Pentherophobia (fear one’s mother-in-law), lachanophobia (fear of vegetables), arachidobutyrophobia (fear of peanut butter) and helminthophobia (fear of being infested with worms) are probably more of a worry than hippopotamonstrosesquipedaliophobia (fear of long words). Ichthyophobia (fear of fish) is probably more common than emmetrophobia (fear of poetry) and arithmophobia (fear of numbers) more of a problem than octophobia (fear of the number eight).

Phobias can seriously impact on a person’s life and cause great distress. Someone with chronophobia (fear of time) probably won’t be very punctual! A person with chaetophobia (fear of hair) is most likely bald, has no eyelashes, no eyebrows, and a well-shaved smooth body as well! Cibophobia (fear of food) could easily lead to anorexia. Clinophobia (fear of going to bed), scotophobia (fear of the dark) and oneirophobia (fear of dreams) may lead to problems with sleep, insomnia and psychological disturbances.

Psychological help is available to help people with all sorts of different phobias and psychiatric treatments may be needed, unless of course the person has iatrophobia (fear of doctors)…

POETRY WEDNESDAY

“If I know what love is, it is because of you.” - Hermann Hesse

I was up in Brisbane for the day today and it was quite a day! Worked non-stop for the duration of the trip and even more. There were a couple of important meetings to attend and some people at the ministry to see. All went well, so quite a successful trip.

This poem was written several years ago and was first written in Greek. Here is the English version.

My Gifts

Look at my outstretched open hand,
There is a red, red rose in it;
It is my heart, take it.

Look inside my clenched fist, hiding
Two diamonds, precious sparkling;
They are my glance, take it.

Look at your feet, what I lay down,
A green bough, fresh fragrant;
It is my body, take it.

Look once more in your deserted cage,
There is a white dove imprisoned there now;
It is my soul, take it.

And just when you thought I had nothing more to give,
My tears, yield like a salt water fount, love.
It’s love, take it.

WORLD HEALTH DAY - DISASTERS

“Sickness is the vengeance of nature for the violation of her laws.” - Charles Simmons

April 7th is the day declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “World Health Day”. The celebration of World Health Day creates an international opportunity to raise awareness of important health-related issues, and each year a special theme highlights a current and topical problem worldwide. This year, World Health Day is dedicated to the safety of health facilities and the readiness of health workers who treat those affected by emergencies. Health centres and staff are critical lifelines for vulnerable people in disasters - treating injuries, preventing illnesses and caring for people’s health needs.

Health facilities for primary health care in communities meet everyday needs, such as safe childbirth services, immunisations and chronic disease care that must continue in emergencies. In a disaster or an emergency, the already fragile health systems are unable to keep functioning with immediate and future public health consequences. The WHO and its international partners are highlighting this year on World Health Day the importance of investing in health infrastructure. Forward planning and resource allocation can withstand hazards and serve people in immediate need. Health facilities are being urged to implement systems to respond to internal emergencies, such as fires, and ensure the continuity of care.

Wars, cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, disease outbreaks, famine, floods, fires, radiological incidents and chemical spills all are emergencies that impact heavily on public health. Internal emergencies in health facilities, such as fires and loss of power or water, can damage buildings and equipment and affect staff and patients. In conflicts, reasons for hospital breakdowns include staff being forced to leave due to insecurity and the looting of equipment and drugs.

In 2008, a total of 321 natural disasters killed 235,816 people (a death toll that was almost four times higher than the average annual total for the seven previous years). This increase was due to just two events. Cyclone Nargis left 138,366 people dead or missing in Myanmar, and a major earthquake in south-western China's Sichuan province killed 87,476 people, according to the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). Asia, the worst-affected continent, was home to nine of the world’s top 10 countries for disaster-related deaths. Along with other weather-related events, floods remained one of the most frequent disasters last year, according to UNISDR. Conflicts around the globe have also led to great human suffering and have stretched health care services to the extreme.

Although only 11% of the people exposed to natural hazards live in developing countries, they account for more than 53% of global deaths due to natural disasters. The difference in impact suggests there is great potential to reduce the human death toll caused by natural disasters in developing countries. The key ingredient in these tragedies is human inaction and poor support of essential services and health facilities by governments.

We can all help to support better health care in emergencies. Wide support for safer hospitals is needed from all within the community. Partnerships between different sectors (including emergency services) are vital to ensure that health facilities receive priority attention when an emergency occurs; for instance, by safeguarding the water supply or securing access to hospitals and other health centres. Many people are involved in this already. Some individuals volunteer in health facilities, professional bodies encourage innovations and designs that make health facilities safer and more functional in emergencies. However, urgent action need be taken if unnecessary death and suffering are to be prevented when our hospitals fail in emergencies.

Governments, financial institutions, private and corporate donors, universities and training organisations should all be collaborating in ensuring that resources are allocated wisely, infrastructure planning and implementation of strategies are occurring in a timely fashion. Health facilities and health workers should ensure that resources are being utilised at the maximum efficiency, good planning and budgeting are occurring so as to ensure good emergency responses. Plans for emergency responses should be familiar to everyone and staff should not only be familiar with this plan, but should be trained adequately in order to respond effectively.

The World Health Day 2009 is quite appropriate given the recent events in central Italy where a powerful earthquake that rocked the medieval town of L’ Aquila killed about 200 people and left tens of thousand homeless. More than 24 hours after the quake struck in the early hours of Monday morning tens of people were still reported missing. The quake of magnitude 6.2 Richter damaged some 10,000 buildings, many beyond repair, leaving up to 70,000 people homeless, according to a government estimate. Such numbers are optimistic and conservative estimates.

Of the dead, about 39 were in the small nearby town of Onna, which had a population of around 250. The nearby villages of Villa Sant’ Angelo and Borgo di Castelnuovo were practically wiped out. In the wake of the tragedy, emergency services and health facilities will be stretched to the limit as the infrastructure will struggle to cope with the dead, the injured, the infectious diseases that may break out. Doctors treated people in the open air outside L’ Aquila’s main hospital as only one operating room was functioning. This highlights the WHO’s sensitisation of the issue of emergency and disaster and how resilient health services and facilities are in the face of such disasters…

MOVIE MONDAY - ADAM'S APPLES

“Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.” - Gandhi

We watched a very good Danish film at the weekend, a comedy as black as they get and quite confronting. It was the 2005 “Adam’s Apples” by director Anders Thomas Jensen who also wrote the script. The film manages to be amusing and engaging as a comedy, but at the same succeeds in communicating a meaningful message to the audience, while being quite complex in its depth and moral questions it raises. In fact, the film’s central theme is the concept of good and evil and the way that different people view this concept and how they live their lives in the shadow of the choices they make.

The film revolves around Ivan, a priest living in an isolated region of Denmark and having under his charge various prisoners who have been released in order to serve some of their sentence in community service. There is an ex-tennis player turned sex offender and now obese and kleptomaniac; there is the alcoholic woman who is pregnant and wonders whether her drinking during the pregnancy has caused her baby to be congenitally disabled; the Saudi-Arabian robber with a penchant for shooting; and finally Adam, the latest arrival, who is neo-Nazi skinhead with a mean streak of violence who admits to being evil.

Adam is in complete contrast with Ivan, the priest, who believes that all is a temptation, that the devil is lurking behind all adversity and that the only weapon against this is infinite forbearance, faith and the goodness of God. Ivan is portrayed in a rather negative way by Jensen. For a priest, there seems to be little of love for his neighbour but rather a business-like attitude of helping others because his faith demands it. Adam observes Ivan and discovers his Achilles heel an takes great pleasure in destroying Ivan. However, as the story unfolds, it is Adam who unwittingly starts to care about his fellow-inmates and it is the evil, cruel Adam who is moved to acts of brotherly love.

The film relies heavily on biblical allegories (the obvious one is the apples of the garden of Eden and the attempts by Adam to consume them). The other is the Book of Job and Christian patience and faith, belief in God even in the face of adversity. The film moves easily from almost farcical, high comedy to darkest philosophy and deals with issues such as disability, abortion, gangland violence, gun culture, selfishness and altruism, faith and atheism. It is movie that provokes and goads, massages and tickles, shocks and entertains.

The cast does a marvellous job with Ulrich Thomsen giving an excellent performance as Adam as does Mads Mikkelsen as Ivan. Nicolas Bro, Ali Kazim and Paprika Steen are also perfect for their roles. Ole Thestrup is the broadly comical Dr. Kolberg, who plays the caricature of the insensitive doctor, who lacks empathy or other proper human feelings. The music is somber and suits the dark mood well, but does not detract from the comedic elements of the story.

It is definitely worthwhile seeking this film out and seeing it. However, be warned, there are some very violent scenes in it, which nevertheless do not seem to be out of place. It is almost in the vein of comic book or animated film violence, although blood and gore are graphically portrayed. I gave the film an 8 out of 10.

ART SUNDAY - SUSAN SEDDON BOULET

“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.” - George Carlin

This Sunday, I offer you the art of Susan Eleanor Seddon (1941-1997) who was born in Brazil of English parents who had emigrated from South Africa. Two years later her mother died, shortly after the birth of her second child, Patrick. The artist spent her early childhood on a large citrus and cattle farm. She loved the connection to nature offered by farm life and enjoyed a rich fantasy life fed by folk tales told her by her father and by the farm-workers. Encouraged by her father, she began drawing; her first subjects were the cows and horses of the farm. While Boulet took art classes off and on during her life, beginning in her finishing school years in Lausanne, Switzerland, she never studied art formally. She said, in fact, that she never planned on becoming an artist--the vocation came to her as by accident.

Boulet came to the US in 1967 to work for Braniff Airlines. It was also in this year that she met and married Lawrence Boulet, who inspired Susan to invest herself seriously in her art. Boulet credited the birth of her son Eric, in 1969, with freeing her creativity, saying that Eric “somehow freed the child in me; gave me permission to enjoy fantasy… gave me permission to do unicorns and dragons”. Boulet began selling her art in 1970. By 1972, aided by her husband who managed all non-artistic aspects of her career, she was supporting the family. In 1980 her husband died of cancer.

Much of Boulet's work from the 1970s pictures cheerful images from fairytale and fantasy-jesters, knights, mermaids, magicians, and the like-executed in rainbow-bright colors. Around 1980 Boulet produced 'I Heard the Owl Call my Name', the first in a series of paintings that pointed to a new direction in Boulet's work. From this point on, Boulet painted images that she felt tapped into the essence of the collective human unconscious. She visualized images of goddesses from various cultures and Native American shamanic personages that combined the forms of animal and human into a coherent whole. Boulet drew the inspiration for her art from a wide variety of sources: Mythology and poetry, Jungian psychology and worldwide spiritual traditions, as well as deep love of animals and the natural world.

Today Susan Seddon Boulet's paintings are held in collections around the world. Susan Seddon Boulet died in her home in Oakland on April 28, 1997 after a long struggle with cancer.

The paiting above is called “Moon Goddess”. More of her work can be found at:
http://www.tendreams.org/boulet.htm

SEA OF POPPIES

“Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare, and left the flushed print in a poppy there.” - Francis Thompson

For Song Saturday today, a song by the talented Italian singer/songwriter Riccardo Cocciante: It is "Il Mare dei Papaveri" (The Sea of Poppies). Music: Riccardo Cocciante; Lyrics: Mogol

This is from the 1985 CD of the same name and contains a fantastic selection of songs:
1. Mare Dei Papaveri
2. Tempo Nuovo
3. Due
4. Sabato, Rilassatamente
5. Questione Di Feeling
6. Al Centro del Silenzio
7. Marilyn
8. Concerto Nello Spazio
9. Canzone Dell'infinito
10. Star



Mare Dei Papaveri

Ed è soprattutto quando è sera
che mi manchi ancora un po'.

È davvero stata molto dura
esser coerente e dirti no
ma non si può rinchiuder l'anima
in una storia di abitudini
se hai nel cuore altre immagini.

Io sono da bosco e da riviera
e vorrei vivere con te
ma in una dimensione un po' più vera
che si manifesterà da se
senza paure e senza regole
seguendo il vento come nuvole
per sempre ormai incontaminabili.

Vuoi? Vuoi?
Sei ancora in tempo se vuoi
Puoi! Vuoi?

Noi saremo un nucleo indissolubile
che si apre agli altri senza limiti
per onorare il nostro vivere

Ondeggia il mare dei papaveri
il cielo assiste quieto e complice
noi respiriamo i nostri aneliti

Vuoi? Puoi!
Sei un'altra parte di noi che oramai
lasciamo il suolo perché
il volo viene da sé
si perde, l'opaco senso si perde
e vince la vita, ogni giorno diversa
un abbraccio, una corsa
nessuna storia mai persa, mai persa...

Sea of Poppies

In the evenings, especially,
I still miss you a little bit.

It’s been really very hard
To stay coherent and tell you no,
But one can’t close up one’s soul
In a boring story of habits and routine,
If there are other ideas in one’s heart.

I am of the forest and the river
And wanted to live with you
In a more real dimension,
That would manifest itself
Without fears and rules.
Chasing the wind like clouds,
Now and forever pure.

Do you want to? Really want to?
You have time, if you want to,
You can, if you want to!

We would be an indissoluble nucleus
That would open itself up to others without limits
So that we could honour our life.

The sea of poppies rolls in waves,
The sky quietly assists it, complicitly
And we breathe in our desires.

Do you want to? Really want to?
You are another part of ourselves that now
Leaves the soil so that we can fly,
Because flight comes naturally.
The dark sense loses itself
And life wins; life each day more diverse,
With an embrace, a race,
And no story ever lost, ever lost…

Enjoy your weekend!

TEA FOR TWO

“If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.” - Japanese Proverb

“Picture you upon my knee Just tea for two And two for tea Just me for you And you for me...alone”

So the old song goes, and the wonderful beverage from China, made now a citizen of the world and after water is the most popular drink worldwide. Tea refers to the agricultural products of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods. Tea also refers to the aromatic beverage prepared from the cured leaves by combination with hot or boiling water, and is the colloquial name for the Camellia sinensis plant itself.

Unless you drink your tea iced, chances are that you enjoy it scalding hot! Iranian scientists have published a study in the British Medical Journal where they report that drinking steaming hot tea has been linked with an increased risk of oesophageal cancer. The oesophagus is the muscular tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach. The study found that drinking black tea at temperatures of 70˚C was associated with a heightened chance of developing this cancer.

Oesophageal cancers kill more than 500,000 people worldwide each year and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common type. Tobacco and alcohol are the main factors linked to the development of oesophageal cancers in Europe, America and Australia. Until now, it has not been clear why other populations around the world have high rates of the disease although there has been a theory that regularly drinking very hot drinks damages the lining of the gullet.

Golestan Province in northern Iran has one of the highest rates of OSCC in the world, but rates of smoking and alcohol consumption are low and women are as likely to have the cancer diagnosed as men do. Tea drinking, however, is widespread. The University of Tehran researchers studied tea drinking habits among 300 people diagnosed with OSCC and compared them with a group of 570 people from the same area. Nearly all participants drank black tea regularly, on average drinking over a litre a day.

Compared with drinking warm or lukewarm tea (65C or less), drinking hot tea (65-69C) was associated with twice the risk of oesophageal cancer, and drinking very hot tea (70C or more) was associated with an eight-fold increased risk. The speed with which people drank their tea was also important. Drinking a cup of tea in under two minutes straight after it was poured was associated with a five-fold higher risk of cancer compared with drinking tea four or more minutes after being poured. There was no association between the amount of tea consumed and risk of cancer.

Because the researchers had relied on study participants to say how hot their tea was, they then went on to measure the temperature of tea drunk by nearly 50,000 residents of the same area.
This ranged from under 60C to more than 70C, and reported tea drinking temperature and actual temperature was found to be similar. Hot black tea is a tradition in the Middle East

Previous studies from the UK have reported people prefer their tea to be about 56-60C - cool enough not to be risky. In a British Medical Journal editorial, David Whiteman from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia said: “The mechanism through which heat promotes the development of tumours warrants further exploration and might be given renewed impetus on the basis of these findings”.

Dr Whiteman advised tea-drinkers to simply wait a few minutes for their brew to cool from “scalding” to “tolerable”. Adding milk, as most tea drinkers in Western countries do, cools the drink enough to eliminate the risk. Oliver Childs, a spokesman for Cancer Research UK, said: “Tea drinking is part of many cultures, and these results certainly don’t point to tea itself being the problem. But they do provide more evidence that a regular habit of eating and drinking very hot foods and drinks could increase your risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus”.

Linda Solegato has said that: “Iced tea may not have as much wisdom as hot tea, but in the summer better a cool and refreshed dullard than a steamy sweat-drenched sage - leave sagacity to the autumn!”; but perhaps there is much more wisdom in iced tea after all!

MEDICAL DICTIONARY

“The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” – Voltaire

I am currently working on a medical dictionary and together with my two fellow editors-in-chief we have been very busy over the last few months getting together the second edition of this monumental work. I am now examining the picture entries that illustrate the words and this is the fun part, sorting through various images and determining their suitability. To a certain extent the choice of image can be the clinching factor in making a dictionary entry clear and lucid. No matter how good a definition is, if the accompanying image is poor, then the whole entry can confuse rather than illuminate. If the image is as good as the definition, the reader will be doubly enlightened.

So, no surprise that today’s word is a medical one:

cystoscope |ˈsistəˌskōp| noun Medicine
An instrument inserted into the urethra for examining the urinary bladder.
DERIVATIVES
cystoscopic |ˌsistəˈskäpik| adjective
cystoscopy |sisˈtäskəpē| noun
ORIGIN early 18th century: From late Latin cystis, from Greek kustis ‘bladder’ and from modern Latin -scopium, from Greek skopein ‘look at’.

Be well and be happy!

POETRY WEDNESDAY - MY COUNTRY

“The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.” - William Shakespeare

April Fool’s Day today and there were several pranks around this morning beginning on the radio where several nonsensical pieces were played, supposedly composed by a hitherto unknown son of JS Bach. Then some interesting news items including the Goodwill’s plans to tour a new ‘submersive audiovisual environment’ stage show dubbed “The Circle”. Other news regarding a new cash crop being considered for drought-stricken areas – a variety of rapidly growing berry bush that doesn’t need watering and produces ready to harvest dried fruit. Stories of several people being sent on fools’ errands, and then of course it is all over by twelve noon.

Something which wasn’t very funny was the release of the Conficker worm, which is a computer worm that can infect PCs and spread itself across a network automatically, without human interaction. It is suspected that the worldwide computer disaster may have been averted through good communication and people being alerted to use anti-virus programs.

The other very sad news item from Australia is our floods in the Northeast of NSW, with many towns severely flooded. Parts of the New South Wales mid-north coast have been declared a natural disaster zone after at least 3,200 people were trapped by a flood described by emergency services as a once-in-a-century phenomenon. The Coff’s Harbour CBD is under flood waters and the situation will not improve for a couple of weeks. All of this of course after the bushfires and destruction in Victoria. We are still recovering from the aftermath of these and many people that have been affected by the tragedy have either moved to Melbourne (our public transport is free for the victims until October, I read in the train station this morning), or are desperately trying to rebuild their lives in their devastated areas.

For Poetry Wednesday today a classic Australian poem by Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968)

My Country

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Dorothea Mackellar

The illustration is Australian artist Arthur Streeton’s 1896 painting “The purple noon's transparent might” (Oil on canvas, 123.0 x 123.0 cm in the National Gallery of Victoria).

URBAN LEGENDS

“No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has doubts about it himself.” - Henry Adams

I was having a cup of coffee with a colleague this morning and she was telling me that she went to a wedding at the weekend. Apparently, as the bride was walking up the aisle, she stumbled and lost her shoe, causing her to trip and would have fallen over if it weren’t for her father who got hold of her. She was summarily shod again after they ensured that she was OK and the ceremony proceeded without further hitch (except the one that the priest tied…). My colleague then went on and said that at the reception afterwards numerous stories surfaced about similar events at weddings, including one story that was told about someone’s friend of a friend who was a maid of honour at a wedding and who walked on a grating on the sidewalk and got her shoe caught in it. The grating was removed and everyone moved to the side to try and release her shoe. Another member of the wedding party then walked up carelessly and fell into the opened up hole that the grating was covering. He fell down a distance of three metres and broke his neck, dying on the spot.

We laughed over this recognising the stuff of an urban legend. An urban legend is any modern (fictional) story, which is told as truth and which reaches a wide audience by being passed from person to person. Most urban legends are completely false, but some turn out to be largely true, and a lot of them may have been inspired by an actual event which evolved into something quite different in their passage from person to person, becoming embellished and altered in the manner of Chinese whispers. More often than not, it isn't possible to trace an urban legend back to its original source, they seem to come from nowhere and everywhere.

Psychologists have come up with a number of definitions for urban legend. To many, a legend must be a story, with characters and some sort of plot. Others lump widely dispersed misinformation into the urban-legend category. While these “facts” don’t always have the narrative elements of traditional legend, they are passed from person to person and frequently have the elements of caution, horror or humour found in legends. Many of the urban legends are on the themes of death, sex, crime, contamination, technology, ethnic stereotypes, celebrities, horror or of beating the system. They are mostly cautionary tales with some sort of moral at the end, and give a dire warning about the “terrors lurking out there”.

One of the most famous of urban legends is the “hooked-hand” tale: A young couple on a date drive off to a remote spot to “park”. Over the radio, there is a news flash that interrupts the music telling of a psychopath with a hook prosthesis for a missing hand, who has escaped from a local mental institution. The girl wants to go home, but her boyfriend insists there’s nothing to worry about. After a while, the girl thinks she hears a scratching or tapping sound outside the car and terrified she says again she wants to leave. The boyfriend assures her it’s nothing, but at her insistence, they eventually drive off. When they get to the girl’s house, the boyfriend goes around to the passenger side to open her door. To his horror, there is a bloody hook hanging from the door handle. The cautionary tale here is simple and direct: Don’t go parking in lonely spots that could hide a myriad dangers, trust the woman’s intuition, and certainly don’t engage in premarital sex!

A more elaborate tale tells of a businessman visiting Las Vegas and meeting an attractive woman in the bar that he gets quite friendly with. They have a few drinks and he manages to get very drunk. The next thing he remembers is that he wakes up in his bathtub, which is full of ice and bloody water. The phone is beside him and on it is pinned a note: “Ring 911 or die!” He does so and after he is rushed to hospital to deal with his serious injury, it turns out that the woman he met was part a gang of organ harvesters who have removed his kidney to sell on the black market. The warning here is that the businessman ended up in this predicament only after going to drink at a bar and then flirting with a mysterious unknown woman. Don’t drink! Don’t flirt with strange women! Don’t cheat on your wife! Don’t be an idiot in a strange city!

An amusing urban legend revolves around a colony of alligators in New York sewers who are responsible for many disappearances of people that get devoured. The colony is found by a group of children and they manage to alert police who exterminate them. Many such urban legends have the characteristics of an amusing story or a joke, that plays on fears or prejudices of (gullible) people that tend to accept them as true.
Do you have a story of an urban legend? Do tell!

MOVIE MONDAY - SECRET WINDOW

“There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.” – André Gide

On Sunday we watched a Johnny Depp film, the 2004 thriller “Secret Window”, directed by David Koepp. It is based on a Stephen King novel and is another of these films where one turns the brain off and spends 96 minutes vegetating on a little mindless escapist entertainment. I must admit that I like a good thriller or film noir, an intelligent horror movie, but cannot stand the “Friday 13th” type of drivel or “Nightmare on Elm St” type of horror flicks that are essentially produced for the pajama party or drive in crowd and calculated to produce the most screams per minute by scattering the most blood and gore across the screen per unit time.

Johnny Depp is not one of my favourite actors although he has been in many successful films. He tends to pout a lot in this film and spends a lot of time tousling his hair and looking like stunned rabbit. He also seems to sleep a lot (and not in his bed). The cast includes John Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton and Charles S. Dutton. They all act in a rather woodenish way and they are good caricatures of the typical suspense/thriller movie. The twists and turns of the plot are rather predictable and the ending is less than satisfying.

In short, the plot has as follows (don’t worry, I won’t give anything away by peppering it with spoilers): After a bitter separation from his wife (Maria Bello), the famed mystery writer Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) lives alone at his remote lake house. He is unexpectedly confronted there by a dangerous and mysterious stranger named John Shooter. Claiming Rainey has plagiarised his short story, the psychotic Shooter demands “justice”. When Shooter's demands turn to threats (and subsequently murder) Rainey turns to a private detective for help. But when nothing stops the horror from spiralling out of control, Rainey soon discovers he can't trust anyone or anything.

There is a very horrific scene in which a dead animal is featured, so if you are squeamish about it, then this is not the film for you. I disliked it particularly as it didn’t contribute to the story. The scene could have been easily deleted. Philip Glass was responsible for part of the score but “Psycho” it’s not, although there are some Hitchcock tributes in the film.

I got a bit sick of Depp and his hair very early on in the movie and his impression of a village idiot fails to satisfy. I got a few laughs out of the movie (unintentional, to be sure, the scenes were meant to be scary!) and watched till the end, even though it was quite lame. This is a B-grade TV flick to be seen during a pizza night with a few good friends and relaxing and joking about it. I would not go out of my way to find it and see it, but if its on TV, send out for a pizza and ring a couple of friends…

ART SUNDAY - GERASIMON

“To him in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family.” - Buddha

For Art Sunday today, the art of Peter Gerasimon. He was born in 1951 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, one of eight children of Russian/German immigrants. He developed an interest in fine arts from a very young age and attended art classes, despite advice from relatives and friends that this was not a secure career choice. He attended art classes at the Escuela de Artes Quilmes, Argentina 1966-1967 and a course at the “Famous Artists School for Talented Young People” 1969-1971.

Peter Gerasimon succumbed to the advice of his family and not believing an art career could support him in the future, pursued studies in economics and business management. Nevertheless, painting remained his passion and even on his business trips he always found some time to draw sketches and produce an occasional painting. In early 1996 he gave up his busy management career to go after his true calling, becoming a full time artist. He set up his home studio and gallery, “Glenrowan Studios” in Gisborne, Victoria, near the Macedon Ranges and met with instant success. He has since then held many exhibitions and won various art prizes.

This painting is called “A Glorious Day in Melbourne” and depicts one of the most famous buildings of our city, the Flinders Street Station. This is the station I get off every morning when going to work. It is a lovely old Victorian building and at one time housed the longest corridor in the world. A tongue in cheek comment is the blue utility in the intersection driven by the former treasurer Peter Costello and in which the passenger is John Howard our last PM.

More of this artist’s work can be seen on: http://www.gerasimon.com.au/