h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Morning Cass

I am thinking about this conversation but wanted to say good morning.

It is a pretty sunny morning at the moment,I think though it is just a brief respite from the rain

Peanut

Morning Peanut

Same here.. Both things. I woke up fairly early and drew back the curtains- to find a glorious blue sky as far as the eye could see. So I decided to go out for an earlier walk, worried that I might this time arrive back before Mrs Cass' rising time. But it was so lovely I had time to sit on a bench looking out over the huge expanse of the South of London, marvelling (as ever) that what you see is mostly the tops of trees.

Unlike yesterday's near rain and rain there was a general mood of relaxation and I ended up, first exchanging common civilities with a young woman of Taiwanese origins which grew into a long conversation about Chinese history and London's great "melting pot" achievements. Much talk about the Opium Wars which her daughter's teacher is teaching was all an evil British conspiracy to weaken the Chinese people so that China would fall victim to British power. She did not even know that the Chinese government had set up a state monopoly in the production and distribution of Opium possibly to provide the famous "opium of the masses" that would make them easier to govern.

As often happens I talked too much, especially when I can hope to learn as a result. My next chat was with the old peripathetic violin teacher in the school I taught at from 74-78. I often passed her waiting for buses when still going to work. An elderly spinster whose life seemed to have been built all around music.. But at least music is a "real presence". I often retire into it myself. But an old song of mine is "Even My Guitar Lets Me Down".

"If music be the food of love, play on".

Cass

Hi Cass

Sounds like a great 'walk and talk' with a view to boot, what a lovely morning

Where did you get too with your thinking about the other thing?

It takes me a while to put things into written words, niether am I entirely clear of what I would to achieve which makes me feel bit wobbley.

If we could I *think* I would like to backtrack a few posts and to look at the Topless thread and to go through what has gone on there. I find the prospect of that exercise a little daunting because it is potentially fraught one and quite likely not one we would just get through in a day

I think I should say from the outset what I would really like to discuss with you, which is not the issue of toplessness, or history but the inter-actions that have gone on that thread and from individuals perspectives

um, that is how far I have got, as I asked where did you get too and what do you think of what I am saying now

Peanut

Hi Peanut

Where have I got to on the other thing? ..

Well Oxford does tend to encourage people to have Utopian dreams about the potential of Humanity..

But a regular "trist" for young people to meet-up (in my day at least) is The Martyrs Memorial: and I was writing recently that I regard Thomas Cranmer as THE key figure in English History.

I vividly remember Miss Jenner telling us of his famous martyrdom, after he had torn up the documents that he had signed accommodating his own beliefs to that of the new Marian establishment in the hope that he might "still be of some service" and prevent the persecutions that killed over 300 people in three years. But he had realised that the current establishment were bent on evil and the rejection of his all-embracing and loving view of humanity. His iron will led him to hold his hand out into the fire that was going to consume his whole body, in order to show his rejection of the hand that had allowed him to "betray" himself.

Sir Thomas More, like Cranmer, was not truly an Oxford man, leaving before he completed his studies. Hence perhaps his "Utopia" is more quizzical and not the "blue-print" that Utopians have tried to turn it into. But I love that line in Robert Bolt's play, based on Roper's biography.

"No. Milord. Not malicious. I mean none harm. I do none harm. And if that be not enough to stay alive in this realm, then in truth I long to be dead."

But More was a Londoner, and ,fortunately, like the Taiwannese lady I met this morning, people in London (who are in the Front Line of change) are less rigid and more open to new ideas and possibilities. It was because London was at the core of the storm of change that I came here. As my pupils discovered over the years, visiting friends and relatives, most other places are "decades behind", still clinging on to old ideas; or- as in another song "Yesterdays Battles".

"Don't call me to yesterdays battles
Stop living with yesterday's blues
You know that yesterday's battles
Were made by yesterday's views"

Most people, as I discovered, only studied to pass exams and "know" enough to claim some existing status based on their bits of paper, and then just try to keep "up to date" in their little field of specialization within some body of "established knowledge".

I know that they feel that I threaten them as others have done before. "New wine and old skins"... The people that feel threatened usually kill off the person who they see as the problem.. Fortunately Londoners and ordinary French people can see that I am just a man who is passionate about the future of us all and has made huge efforts to contribute to the Commonweal, and make room for all the unhappy and disadvantaged people.

Cass

Hi Peanut,

On reflection I misquoted that line in the Bolt play, missing out "I think none harm" and changing "I long not to live".

I suppose I do see that end moment as a chance to "embrace death" having- as I wrote in another song "taken every dear Godgiven chance to run and embrace life".

I wrote a poem at uni that was published in our History students magazine in which I imagined a death scene.

And in terms of other people's reaction to posts and threads, I can only imagine that the people who expressed such joy and delight over the "Test" thread belong to some space or time that is radically different and alien to me, and are likely to feel equally alienated by mine.

Cass

Hi Cass

I didn't feel that our conversation re the topless thread had gone well and wasn't particulary constructive.

I had mixed feeling about that, I was cross and unsubbed from the thread, I shouldn't have posted in the first place but also I don't find watching you dig a hole for yourself rewarding.

I was also feeling oh well it will blow over for me and wasn't to sure what to say, so took a breather for a couple of days

Have you been for anymore walk and talks?

I have been shopping today and I should go and unpack it. Hate shopping

Peanut

Hi Peanut

Yes I have had some lovely talks and walks- especially this morning.. And talking to a couple of strangers it came to me just why so many people Online have this sense that some years ago someone expressed as the feeling of being run over by a Juggernaut. One young Scotsman called David was down here from Fyfe, and said after a while that he was glad to have run into me and have a chat because he had basically just done labouring work and had been thinking about signing up for an A Level History course. The other was a grandma, whose children had been schooled nearby, but at one stage she had lived in Somerset in a village with no shop, just a pub and one bus once a week. In both cases we were all relishing the green spaces that abound here in South London.

And at the same time all around us there was the sound of London going about its business. And I am reminded of what Harold Nicholson wrote after having been bombe in London during the Blitz. The next day London was damaged. But it just got going like some remorseless dynamo. It is the dynamism of people and the human spirit: and I am afraid that people who are not "married into " London can not feel that force and strength.

Long years of frank and open discussions- in the tradition of the "moot" (as in my Question today on Freedom of Speech) have fleshed out" my ideas so that they are based on inumerable contacts with and involvement in real life.

So, in the interim, as h2g2 went quiet, I have finally managed to get onto Facebook and quickly aquired two "friends". I have also exchanged with old pupils and others from my third school, not far away from here. And have left some messages with pupils from my last school, if they want to respond. I also last night seem to have found the girl opposite who I used to play with up to the age of 10-11: and my best friend from Uni and training. I hope to hear from them.

For some reason this time I am back with my original skin and it has smilies so I will see whether I can add some. Then it is one of my lunch days.



Cass

Heavens Peanut!

This thread has now made it to the Front Page- though we have been pretty inactive this week.. This is really worrying!

A lovely morning walk today.. No chats. But without so many people and dogs the crows felt freer to come to ground and chat.. I remember getting some books for Xmas when I was ten, and being fascinated to read that English Oak trees carried on growing for a thousand years. Well, Croydon means "The valley (dean) of the Crows" so I could imagine those venerable oaks that I hold dear having been here since at least Croydon was recorded in Domesday.. And the raucous crows in our fragment of the great North Wood cheer me up every day as they just rejoice in a new day. Our life span is somewhere between the Crows and the Oaks. The Cows tell me "Make the best of the day" and the Oaks tell me" You can afford to take in the panoramic long view".

Have a good day/week end.

Cass

Hi Cass

Maybe it is worked out on word count

We have been pottering around today, did the recycling and am now contmplating cleaning the kitchen cupboards but I keep getting distracted by the lovely weather

counting down the hours to Dr Who which we have been looking forward too

Peanut

Hi Peanut

I had forgotten that the "ball is in my court"...How was Dr. Who? Did they "do" for the girl who always makes me think of the most able pupil-historian of my career? And how are you now that October is upon us".. I had another walk today,, and plucked up the courage on third encounter to ask a woman that I met on my first walk whether by chance she belonged to the same family as two of my ex-pupils. She was somewhat astonished. But is in fact their younger sister. Though her eldest son is now grown up..

Cass

Hi Cass



Dr Who was sad, Amy and Rory have died but we get to hold on the idea that they lived a happy life together. It was a good ending enough closure so we can move on but enough left open for discussion
and maybe for stories at a later date.

Your walks sound great. You have spoken before about the possibility of getting a dog they are good company and can be great ice breakers, I mean conversationally wise. They do unfortunately poo , it is the cleaning up that puts me off having one

Peanut

Morning Peanut

Well killing people off is a feature of all long-running series.. But I would have been sad, even though that actress is "killed off" in part because her career has now taken off.

Interesting that you comment on dogs.. It was Mrs Cass idea to have a dog, and in her case it would just help her to get further lost in her own world and forget about other people. Yesterday I think that she downloaded her orders for the month of March, day by day, hour by hour according to the lunar calendar.. I don't know whether dogs actually fit into that "regimen".

As for me I was reflecting while out on the fact that I do not need the excuse of a dog in order to go out for a walk: and I could observe those who could not just sink in the atmosphere and take in the moment because of dog worries of one kind or another. But give me a few months and the novelty may have warn off. It reminded me of student days when I felt that some people needed to smoke in part because they felt too self-conscious to be just sitting in the "Refectory" doing nothing..

But, as someone wrote yesterday on a private message on Facebook, that she thought, as a pupil that I did not teach, that I was also something of an outsider. The outsider looking in has some freedoms that others do not have.

Just on the finishing strait this morning a women struggling up the hill suddenly stopped and asked me if I was not our daughters Dad. And it turned out to be someone with whom I had served on the PTA 30 odd years ago.. On one of those occasions she had said to me while socialising that she would love to be like me, because I just spoke my mind, without worrying about what other people would think.

I think that this was my fourth conversation of this morning.

Have a good day.

Cass

Hi Cass

I'm not keeping with my threads quite. Busy weekend with people coming and going and the only way to fit everyone in is to reorganise the furniture, I am currently at the flustered but sort of organisd stage and

I am looking forward to there being a busy house though. Spiller will be here soon

What you up to?

Peanut

Morning Hedghog

Well I have continued my walks and chats.. This morning I got up a bit late. Mrs Cass was already up.. But in fact after a while I really missed my morning walk, though I anticipated not getting that buzz of people having to "get up and go" in the early morning. In fact I still had a couple of really nice chats.

But- I may have mentioned that I joined Facebook, and found a group site for a school where I worked from 1974-1988. This has led to quite a lot of activity responding to posts largely by ex-pupils who speculated about this and that I could give more information about.. And this has drawn me into some very heavy exchanges with a pupil that I never taught, but who in fact remembered that on one occasion she almost approached me for help in the corridor. For she was failed by the school, having been the sytematic victim of sexual abuse at home, not by her family, but apparently with their compliance. As she said she had sensed that I too was something of an "outsider"-- makes me think of Arthur Miller writing of Marilyn Monroe that she had an unerring instinct and could pick out immediately on entering a room those people who had also had a hard childhood, and had learned to "armour themselves" against a world that was more likely to bring pain and disappointment than the joy and happiness that they sought.

Other exchanges have been more cheering.. I see I have just had a reply from an ex-pupil who is now a Facebook Friend. Yesterday she posted an "I like" image of Tony Benn.. I recognised it and it is linked to something that began to change my ideas about him. He like me faced a moment in Oxford when the girl he had come to feel very strongly about was about to fly back to foreign parts, and potentially out of his life for ever.. At such times one has to make a leap of faith and declare that you think that they should stay in your life for ever. In his case it happened on a bench, which he eventually bought and installed in his garden.. He wrote about all of this when his wife died, and I think that bench is a great link between them.

Enjoy your full house.. Re Full Houses we are off to France again in about ten days time to just about time to receive c19 people for a party to celebrate my parents-in-laws 90th birthday.

Regards

Cass

Morning Hedghog

Morning Peanut

Sorry about that--Just shows how much my mind has been absorbed in these other very deep exchanges....My other thing this morning was dealing with a post from Lanzababy expressing the intention of kicking my last attempt to get something in Peer Review because it was not written "in my own style" but in an academic one.. It is just THE way I try to express myself in prose .

cass

Morning Cass

I did enjoy having a full house

although at one point there were a few too many cats, aquired a skinny one that has been returned to rightful home, there was our house cat sulking, the feral one out the back, staring down from the fence and the neighbours two naughty kittens kept sprinting through the front door, comedy style, you would deposit one outside and the other would peg it back in

How is you?

Peanut

Morning Peanut

I thought of you and your busy week-end; I am glad that you enjoyed it... Funny things on my walk today.. Just the other side of our little oak wood there was a couple with a car that had been clamped, plus clamping van.. I offered my condolescences. But apparently it was sorted. Ford had accepted that they were at fault. My walk was quite solitary. But there was a real "season of mists" moment, when I sat to have my habitual panoramic view over our bit of London. Visibility was quite strange with very distant hills.. And away to the South floating on the clouds the tall buildings a "City of God" were picked out in the rising sun..

Quite appropriate really because last night, after I had finally printed off some letters to publishers, I adapted one to send to Boris Johnson in his capacity as Mayor of London.. He really should be interested in my thesis that modern Nationalistic economics has tried to harness and subdue the potential, power and dynamism of great cities that could no longer be allowed to have "Capital" status- that is to be the Head or the leader. This is most clealy manifest in States like the USA, Australia and Brazil where the Capital functions are, or have been, divorced from the economic and social Metropolis, and placed in a purpose-built facility that may be "detached" and "objective"- but therefore lacks the power of London, which defied the attempts of the Stuarts to "bring it to heel" and subservience.

So it was because I crossed the road to post that letter that I saw the clamping.

Hope you are having a good day, without too much clearing up etc.

Cass

Well there did seem to be a lot of washing up but generally not to much clearing up as such, just lots of reshuffling of things and people

Think we are pretty much back to rights and we seem to be gaining ground, well, floorspace at least

there have been some really good night skies here

Peanut,

That's good to read- both house and sky.. Of course we get "more value" night skies now it is dark so early.. Downside of London is that there is so much light (I will not call it pollution)that you do not see the Heavens so much.. It makes me think that when we are in Burgundy next week I probably should have my daily walks in the evening. The skies there are pitch black!

Or even in the daytime with Mrs Cass! She has suggested joining me here. But then I would be prevented from really taking advantage of the harvest that I am offered each day- instant by instant.

On 1 October she spent hours on the PC downloading her exact orders for the new month in accordance with the Moon, to which she tries to synchronise her life day by day, hour by hour. She does not have my appreciation of London, nor my interest in people.. But, if the Moon allows, we can walk in Burgundy. It is more or less where she has her roots: there are very few people,we hardly know anyone, and there is no real culture of casual conversation with strangers.

But part of my reasoning in our buying a house there was for family reasons: and the second Saturday we are throwing this party for my parents-in-law who are both 90 this month. Our children will be flying over for the week-end,with wife and partner. My sister-in-law and her family will be coming from Switzerland. And my wife's aunt plus children and some grandchildren will be coming from Dijon too. We did a similar thing in 2009 to celebrate our son's wedding, which had been kept to a relatively simple affair in London in August..

Regards

Cass