Toms Blog on Life and Livingness
A “raft” of floating pumice rock the size of Manhattan is drifting towards Australia, bringing along with it new marine life that could help with the recovery of the Great Barrier Reef’s corals, half of which have been killed in recent years …
In order for the government to give from one person it has to take from another who earned it. This removes incentive to work. And if you think they take from the rich who can afford it, look deeply into the wealth of those at the top of the chain in Communist states. Unless we change the moral and ethic level of ALL members of society, from bottom to top and top to bottom, we will continue to have greed, corruption, exploitation and poverty no matter what political/economic system is employed.
Scott Morrison’s coming after anyone who dares to hold him to account.
So we’re stepping up our campaign for a Media Freedom Act – demanding new laws that will protect journalists, whistleblowers, and our right to know.
When Parliament sits in a few weeks, we want to deliver a petition Morrison can’t ignore. Will you sign on? Join the call for a Media Freedom Act now!
At the Himba of Namibia in Southern Africa, the date of birth of a child is fixed, not at the time of its arrival in the world, nor in its design, but much earlier: since the day the child is thought in His Mother’s mind.
When a woman decides she’s going to have a child, she settle down and rests under a tree, and she listens until she can hear the song of the child who wants to be born. And after she heard this child’s song, she comes back to the man who will be the father of the child to teach him that song. And then, when they make love to physically design the child, they sing the song of the child, to invite him.
When the mother is pregnant, she teaches the singing of this child to the midwives and older women of the village. So, when the child is born, old women and people around him sing his song to welcome him.
As the child grows, the other villagers learn his song. So if the child falls, or gets hurt, he always finds someone to pick him up and sing his song. Similarly, if the child does something wonderful, or successfully passes through the rites of passage, the people of the village sing his song to honor him.
In the tribe, there is another opportunity where villagers sing for the child. If, at any time during his life, the person commits an aberrant crime or social act, the individual is called in the center of the village and the people of the community form a circle around him. Then they sing his song.
The tribe recognizes that the correction of antisocial behavior does not pass through punishment, it is by love and reminder of identity. When you recognize your own song, you don’t want or need to do anything that would harm the other.
And the same way through their lives. In Marriage, songs are sung together.
And when, getting old, this kid is lying in his bed, ready to die, All the villagers know his song, and they sing, for the last time, his song.
One of the best things we did for our kids was to make them self-reliant. They had the record for the family who held the same paper round for the longest time at the Forest Lodge Newsagency.
Not saying that is the only reason but they all turned out great people. Two of whom are doing great jobs parenting too!
It’s a lot of fun doing this!
Not every thought you think is yours. Some come from the dark side and are best not nurtured. Let them go as easily as they arrived. Nurture and develop those that build you and others, that are helpful, aesthetic, inspiring and constructive.
The Brian Bigelow Report: It’s a nice phrase, however, the earliest evidence of this quote being a Chinese Proverb was made in 1962 by a magazine that included a “words of wisdom” section, and precluded every one of them with “Confucius say:” regardless of whether the phrase came from Confucius or not. Pre-1962 the phrase was known as early as 1902, but none of those uses were attributed to Confucius. In short, this is unlikely to be a Chinese proverb; still a nice phrase though.
On a related note, there’s also a nice poem with a similar theme published in 1917 by Edgar Albert Guest titled ‘It Couldn’t Be Done’ (posted below)
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it;”
But he took off his coat, and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.