ROUND-BRITAIN TOURIST
Hello again
It don’t seem a minute since I last wrote, yet here we are, a summer-filled two weeks later!
I had a lovely long weekend – Friday and Saturday visiting a convent estate near Norwich which the Norfolk Group Trustees may take over for an Emmaus Community. Nuns still reside in a smaller building, but are looking for a good cause that the larger Convent buildings could go to – and Emmaus may fit the bill! It is a stunning setting (a mere 47 acres of setting, I may say!) and lovely buildings, which seem to exude tranquillity and harmony – but my immediate sinking feeling was : However much must it cost to heat the 20′+ high rooms?!
This (and possibly the narrow road approach road, though that could be relatively easily sorted) was absolutely the only negative, particularly for a small gardener like me! Anyway, the Norfolk Trustees have ‘interesting times’ ahead, and I am sure they will choose well.
Then I went to old friends for a Significant Birthday party for one of them (yes, 21 again.. and again… and almost again!) and it was lovely to see lots of old, old friends. My eldest son got a year older this week too, so age has been rather highly in mind recently.
Poor Mike – his arm got infected, so he has been in a lot of pain while it gets sorted out.
On a positive note, the peace is positively shattered here now by the sound of a lesser-spotted Emmaus Warehouse being built at long last! Every time the pile driver seems to hammer in my head, I keep telling myself it’s in the best of causes! Our presence at the newly-designated Recycling Centre has been very well received and successful.
The remainder of my holiday is being spent, surprise surprise, on the allotment, where I swear I can hearstrawberries getting fatter and broad beans broadening and ah, yes, hoots of laughter at the sight of my attempts to mow the common pathways, spectacularly squiffy but in line with the lumps and bumps and uphill, really. And anyway I wouldn’t have had to but one of our Companions who came up with me had done a twist in lifting stuff at the warehouse the day before and got a bad back right in the middle of the potato trench so he had to go home and lie down.
At the end of next week I am off to the new Hampshire Emmaus in Winchester ‘on loan’ for a spell, replacing two South Lambeth Companions who have spent April down there helping them set up, so you will be spared blogs from me for the duration of the visit. However, there will be postings from other Companions in the interim, so keep watching this space!
Best wishes,
Elizabeth
Dear Elizabeth,
so, you look out the window, and you see perhaps a tree, maybe you see a bird, perhaps you see the house of your neighbors: you see them because they exist, they are your reality, and they are in a relation with you and with your life.
You do not see a god, or an angel, or a spirit, because those fabricated imaginary fictions do not exist, they exist only in the sick minds of those who have confused you, and who will still try to confuse you, your misled parents, your absurd priests, your evil dictators.
A concept that is useful for you has to be valid, and you need to validate each concept that you encounter by relating that concept back to the REALITY that the concept is supposed to represent: without validation, and without REALITY, the concept is false, and useless.
And REALITY is composed by MATTER, by MENTAL PROCESSES, and by SOCIAL PHENOMENA.
So REALITY is the MATTER of the tree, the MENTAL PROCESSES of you seeing the bird, and the SOCIAL PHENOMENA of the social relations between you and your neighbors.
Nothing else is reality.
All gods and goddesses, resurrections and paradises are false and illogical creations of man, absurd and irrational forms of exploitation and intimidation based on cult and religion in order to bend weak people into mental slavery.
And all you have is LOGIC and REASON.
The LOGIC of A is equal to B, A is different from B, A follows B, and A causes B.
And the REASON of you and your neighbors being able to use LOGIC.
LOGIC and REASON lead to EQUALITY and DIGNITY.
EQUALITY, because we are all socially equal.
And DIGNITY, because your neighbor’s social misery would be your misery too.
These concepts are the only socially relevant concepts: we could go on talking endlessly about socially irrelevant concepts, disputing and debating to no end and for no purpose.
Superstition and religion are not for you: I suggest that you follow only your own rational social values, the ones you know are valid, dictated only by your own moral and intellectual virtue, without falling prey to manipulative exorcists and evil preachers with big hats.
Stay well, and write to me if you have time,
Ed
Logic and Reason for Equality and Dignity
EQUALITY AND DIGNITY
Central Bureau for Statistics and Information
equalityanddignity@yahoo.com
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