ACCIDENTAL GEOMETRY

REBELLION, EXTINCTION AND STREET PARTIES

A naked woman jiggling to the beat of insistent drums is not something you usually see if you happen to be emerging from John Lewis on a Wednesday afternoon. But there she was in all her blonde glory because, obviously, she was part of the Extinction Rebellion demonstration in central London and I happened to be there because I didn't know it was going to be on Oxford Street. Apart from members of the police standing around looking disgruntled it was laid back and seriously jolly. Voices here and there raised in songs of protest or support and if there was disapproval amidst the bystanders milling about I didn't see any.

I agree with Extinction Rebellion's basic demands and premises (look them up) but I think their methods of drawing attention lack focus and concentration. If you lump together all the issues that need fixing into one big stew, the odds are that none of them will be resolved or that it will take far too much time. What's needed is clear information and single-issue campaigns which the general public can easily participate in.

For example: give us a list of EXACTLY what products we could and should stop buying right now? Industries and governments refuse to change their planet-and-human-harming ways because they make so much money doing it. If their worldwide sales were suddenly to drop dramatically they would be forced to try alternatives.

Of course transport was held up and it took me three hours to get home from Oxford Street on Wednesday.

TO AGE OR NOT TO AGE?

This week I had appointments with previously un-met doctor and dentist and on each separate occasion I was asked what my secret is for the fact that I don't look or think like a person of my age normally does. All I could think of in reply was:

Genetics, positive thinking, being an artist.

In hindsight, what I should have said is:

"The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” (Einstein)

I could also have said:

Why the hell am I discussing dentures and bowels with you if I am ageless?"

EINSTEIN SAID

The quotes below are by Einstein. I am absolutely in agreement with everything in theses quotes so I'm copying them here to share my enthusiasm. If you don't agree and are not enthused, no problem! But don't forget that these words, these thoughts, are by THE Einstein.

“I didn't arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.”

“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to point of visibility. There is no matter.”

"Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but modes by which we think. Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, determined by the external world."

“Time does not exist – we invented it. Time is what the clock says. The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me."

"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.”

"A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

"Our separation from each other is an optical illusion."

“When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected. The greatest tragedy of human existence is the illusion of separateness.”

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

“We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.”

“When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.”

“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.”

“The ancients knew something, which we seem to have forgotten.”

“The more I learn of physics, the more I am drawn to metaphysics.”

“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike. We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. It is entirely possible that behind the perception of our senses, worlds are hidden of which we are unaware.”

“I’m not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books.”

"The common idea that I am an atheist is based on a big mistake. Anyone who interprets my scientific theories this way, did not understand them."

"Everything is determined, every beginning and ending, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."

“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It will transcend a personal God and avoid dogma and theology.”

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”

“Everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you can not help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

"I am happy because I want nothing from anyone. I do not care about money. Decorations, titles or distinctions mean nothing to me. I do not crave praise. I claim credit for nothing. A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future."

BIRTHDAY

It was yesterday, the 7th day of August, but the day went by too fast. I posted this on Facebook but didn't get round to copying it here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

THIS NATALIE

BORN TODAY

IN PRE-HISTORY

NEVER MIND HOW OLD

YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD

I'M STILL HERE

FOR MANY MORE YEARS

YES I AM

DON'T GIVE A DAMN

ABOUT TIME

IT'S JUST A RHYME.

RIP NICOLAS MCDOWALL

RIP Nicolas McDowall, long-time friend and collaborator, who died on the 31st of July after a short illness. Nicolas, together with his wife Frances (who departed ahead of him in October 2019) were the body, soul and everything else comprising the Old Stile Press at Catchmays Court, their idyllic home on the banks of the river Wye.

I had the pleasure of their friendship and the privilege of working with Nicolas whose skills as a fine printer/typesetter/book-designer/publisher made every stage of producing three of my limited edition books with the OSP an unforgettable experience. Details and images from all three books are here on the OSP website:

I’ve posted several times about the most recent (2015) collaboration with OSP, together with Dick Jones’vivid translation of the legendary Blaise Cendrars poem Trans Siberian Prosody and Little Jeanne from France.

Copies are still available from the OSP of these and many other stunning limited editions, hand-printed bookworks of original art and literature at unbelievably low prices. Nicolas and Frances McDowall’s daughter Cressida is now in charge of the Old Stile Press and you can contact her via their website.

PAGE AND THOUGHT CONJUNCTION

This thought came into my head yesterday. It's deeper than it looks.

DRAWN

THE BIG DRAW asked a few months ago if they could interview me. Of course I said yes. Matilda Barratt sent me some questions and yesterday the interview was published on the Big Draw art organisation's blog.

You can see it here:

A BIG QUESTION

If you’ve reached the signpost labelled 65

or perhaps gone on to the one marked 75

or even the one marked 85

and anything between or above those numbers,

DO YOU DO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING ON A REGULAR BASIS:

1. Make faces at yourself in the mirror?

2. Sing in the shower or bath or anywhere at home alone or in company?

3. Dance by yourself while listening to music?

4. Caress your house plants or any plants you come across if you like them?

5. Attentively observe the facial expressions of all animals including strangers you see in public places?

If you NEVER do all or any of these things, I have a serious question for you:

TAKE OFFENSE, FOR INSTANCE

HOW DO YOU REACT IF SOMEONE YOU KNOW OFFENDS YOU?

a) Say nothing but inwardly ache and grumble, going over the incident repeatedly in your mind for hours, days, maybe years.

b) Immediately walk away silently and resolve not to see the person again.

c) Instantly express your feelings and challenge the person to explain themselves.

d) Make a sarcastic remark putting the person in their place but never say why their behaviour towards you was hurtful.

e) Notice it, feel it, forget it,

f) Write about it.