Poetry – I don’t promise you forever – a love poem of sorts.

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Opher

Poetry – I don’t promise you forever – a love poem of sorts.

I don’t promise you forever

All this romantic talk of forever is just a farce. We haven’t got forever; not even a mere hundred years.

Love is an emotion, an endorphin rush, a surge of brain chemistry. It comes out of attraction and serves a purpose. That purpose is to match our genes and produce children that transcend us or to create a bond with someone that is deep enough to see us through life’s hurdles.

I don’t hold with this romantic talk.

I’ll love you while the endorphins last and then we’ll see if we can still get along on friendship, trust, habit and mutual respect.

On the other hand I might just tell you that it’s forever. That sometimes helps.

I don’t promise you forever

I won’t promise you forever

That is much too long.

After the first billion years

We might not get along.

I won’t be loving you

When the stars all blink out.

You wouldn’t like it then

With just hydrogen about.

No, I’ll love you for a while

And then I’ll stop.

Even a thousand years

Would be over the top.

I won’t even promise you

A measly hundred more.

Long before then

I’d be heading out the door.

Ten more might reasonably

To see us through.

I have a feeling that

Will just about do.

So I’ll love you while

The feelings last.

Probably until the end

When we’re both in the past.

Opher -11.9.2015

People are very fragile.

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Opher

People are very fragile.

Human beings have very powerful minds and emotions. I used to believe that we are incredibly resilient. I no longer believe that.

I believe we are all incredibly fragile and easily damaged.

My experiences of working with children and observing adults have made me extremely aware that many of us are broken and our response to being broken is often aggression, hatred and violence.

I used to say to the teaching staff at my school that there was no such thing as a bad kid. Their bad behaviour was the result of having been damaged by their experiences; our job was to mend them.

I have seen close up the effects of bereavement, bullying, racism, divorce and abuse. The victims often either withdraw or become aggressive.

When I was a child at school a number of my teachers were ex-soldiers. They were not only violent aggressive bullies but they seemed to hate us. They damaged a lot of kids.

I cannot begin to imagine the effect war has on the fragile human psyche. My father would not talk about it. My grandfather would not mention it. But I have met numerous highly confused and violent veterans; one of whom was a murderer.

Around the world at the moment we have millions of people traumatised by war. Some are victims and some are perpetrators. I cannot begin to imagine how some of them ever manage to sleep again. It is no wonder that some are either heartless fiends and others are traumatised wrecks. If you are going to saw someone’s head off at some point in the future that will haunt your waking moments and turn your sleep to nightmares. It catches up with you.

War, poverty, violence, fear, bullying, divorce, death – it all traumatises and messes people up.

Human beings are fragile. The little things send us off the rails; the big things drive us into psychosis.

Atheists have higher IQs and self esteem than religious people…

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Opher

Atheists have higher IQs and self esteem than religious people…

Sounds reasonable to me! I had to smile when I read this post. I wonder if anybody might like to dispute it?

fluidplans

a recent study shows… Atheists tend to have a higher IQ and fewer self esteem issues..

Psychologists from the University of Rochester define intelligence as ‘ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience’. They go on to define religion as some sort of involvement in part or all of the aspects of a belief process.

A meta-analysis of 63 studies showed a significant negative association between intelligence and religiosity. The association was stronger for college students and the general population than for participants younger than college age; it was also stronger for religious beliefs than religious behavior. 53 from the 63 studies displayed a ‘reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity’, in 10 of the 63 studies that relationship positive.

Three possible interpretations were discussed.

First, intelligent people are less likely to conform and, thus, are more likely to resist religious…

View original post 138 more words

Poetry – Miracles and Wonders – A poem about science and technology.

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Opher

Poetry – Miracles and Wonders – A poem about science and technology.

Presenting science to people who have not seen it before would be the same as presenting magic.

Technology harnesses the knowledge of science to create pragmatic solutions. It makes the impossible an everyday event.

How quickly we accept the wonders given to us by science and technology. They transform our lives but we no longer accept them as miracles.

Yet every day is a miracle. The universe is a wonder.

Science is unlocking understanding on an ever widening front. Its rate is incredible. The world we live in has no comparison with the world of a mere hundred years ago. That is not due to prayer it is due to science and technology.

Yet the wonders we work with are only beginning to be understood. The densest solid has a billion times more space than matter. The forces that make the world solid are still barely understood. We have learn to harness them and are beginning to unlock their secrets.

Science is only at the beginning. It thrives on secrets and mystery. Soon we will know the secrets of forever.

Miracles and Wonders

Walking on water –

It’s easy;

Just a question of temperature.

Performing miracles –

Simple;

Merely a case of nomenclature.

Everything an issue of perspective,

For all new science is wondrous.

Where religion is reprehensive,

The universe is simply lustrous.

Each day a miracle;

On the bridge

Over the river.

We walk on water

With wonders

To deliver.

Technology has a metre;

A poem of substance.

Science reveals mystery

Its understanding to enhance.

For the world is real,

An orgy of Quark,

Gathered in clans,

Holding hands

In atoms

In the dark.

We mould them,

Bolt them,

And quietly

Jolt them.

Linking them in bricks

In struts and girder,

Nails and wood,

Cement and solder.

Constructing all around us

Out of forces

We have not yet found

The sources.

Science adores the mystery

It is the basis of our history.

Opher 4.8.2015

Photography – Beatles in Liverpool

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Opher

Photography – Beatles in Liverpool

I had to go on the Beatles tour didn’t I?

I think this was George’s place

This was John’s This was Paul’s

Ringo’s was all boarded up!!

The Cavern – where it all happened.

It was great fun and interesting to see where they all came from.

Photography – Peru – The Ballestas Islands – A treasure trove of wild life + Inca ruins

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Opher

Photography – Peru – The Ballestas Islands – A treasure trove of wild life + Inca ruins

In 2006 we had the opportunity to tour Peru. It was incredible. From rainforest to volcanos and Machu Pichu. Awesome. We went out to the Balestas islands where there were seals, penguins, pelicans and millions of wild sea birds.

We toured the Inca ruins, flew over the Nazca lines and saw the incredible Candelabra (created in the desert by the Incas thousands of years back). The scenery was stunning.

Here’s a few piccies.

Farewell to the Seine

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Opher

Another great one from Frederic.

Who’s Profiting from Brexit??

Posted on August 9, 2019August 9, 2019 by Opher

Rees-Mogg is set to make millions out of Brexit – that’s who!!

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/02/08/2198570/jacob-rees-moggs-huge-personal-windfall-after-brexit/

How many others of the extreme Tory ERG are set to make a killing out of this fiasco!! Who knows??? Perhaps they all will???

Talk about vested interests!! Have they declared their interests?? This smacks of cynical profiteering to me!!

So while the rest of the country gets poorer and people crash out of jobs, firms move abroad or go bust, and we have decades more of austerity and poor public services, the wealthy are making a killing!!!

It is DISGUSTING!!!!

Brexit the tragedy! Tory Tyranny! How to destroy a country!

Posted on August 9, 2019 by Opher

Here we go!! The pound crashing, the economy heading for recession after crawling along for three years, while the extreme Brexiteers are steering us for the rocks.

Johnson, in desperation, is promising bribes for public servants after eleven years of Tory misrule has created mass crises.

There’s an election looming as DEMOCRACY CRASHES!!!

So much for democracy!! We don’t get to vote for a PM!! We don’t get to vote on the EU Deal (or No Deal)!! And Johnson is after shoving it through even if there is a vote of no confidence!! Some democracy we have here!! This tastes like Tory Tyranny!!

Poetry – The Tumble Drier – a humorous poem about the world within our heads.

Posted on August 9, 2019 by Opher

Poetry – The Tumble Drier – a humorous poem about the world within our heads.

The Tumble Drier

I’m not sure if the humour comes across enough in this. I’m a bit too close.

I liked the idea of my mind being like a tumble drier with scintillating thoughts as bright sparks being swept around and joining in new ways. I liked the idea of them chuckling and being naughty. I liked the idea that when you get them to slow down enough to make into words you can never fully capture their brilliance. The black and white symbols are so much less than the brilliant flashes.

If only I could encapsulate the firework display inside my skull and translate them into symbols that glittered and spat their sparkly fire.

I’d change the world.

The Tumble Drier

There’s a tumble drier churning in my head.

It’s tumbling the sparks that are my ideas.

If there was a window in my skull you’d see

Blue and yellow electric flashes of electricity

Spinning,

Falling,

Endlessly,

Like the swirling of the sea.

They swirl and flash

As on my skull they bash

Knocking sense

Into my brain

So dense

That it feels

No pain.

It’s a washing machine

Geared to cleaning up the sparks

So that they can see

To join themselves

For further larks.

As they tumble through the space inside my head

They chuckle as they fall

And join together in endless new ways

Like children giggling in a school.

I have to capture them

And make them stand still

So I can record in symbols

And get my fill.

Sometimes they spin like a hurricane

And light up my eyes with an inner firework display,

Generating emotions and dreams, anger and fury,

And conjure up dragons to slay.

These are those bright sparks

Reduced to black and white

No longer shiny bright

But still lighting up the dark

And sometimes giving me a fright.

There’s a tumble drier churning in my head.

It’s tumbling the sparks that are my ideas.

If there was a window in my skull you’d see

Blue and yellow electric flashes of electricity

Spinning,

Falling,

Endlessly,

Like the swirling of the sea.

Opher 5.9.2015

Month: August 2019