Flash of inspiration II

Posted by T.T. and P.R. in October 2021

When I was in my early sixties, I made an incredible mistake in my normal daily routine. After running out of tea, it has been my habit to buy a new pack of tea leaves and immediately transfer them into a tea canister. But on this occasion, I poured the whole pack of tea leaves into a teapot. My hands executed the task perfectly so that every single leaf was placed  in the teapot and not one escaped the process. Surprisingly, my brain did not notice the error until my hands had completed the task. At that time I didn’t dwell on the matter and I didn’t think it was at all serious, just feeling that perhaps age-related deterioration in my brain was already starting.

I am now in my middle eighties, and errors in my brain function are becoming fairly common. I have found that the teapot event is not a very exceptional case and similar errors occur commonly, although most of them are not so funny. According to medical texts, these kinds of errors are diagnosed as a typical symptom of dementia, and they are classified as disorientation. However, most parts in my brain are surely functioning almost normally. Fortunately, flashes of inspiration can still occur, perhaps even more frequently than before.

Then, as if offering evidence of this, an inspired thought comes into my mind; could a person with dementia actually save our planet? The destruction of brain cells or the damage to blood vessels that may be causes of dementia are random processes that are not affected by poisonous sediments accumulated in the civilization which may cause prejudice. In the dementia-affected brain, there is a possibility of having important inspirations which cannot occur in the normal brain of a civilized society having many prejudices. Today, our cultural background is becoming merged into a commonality, spread across in the world, so that everyone, especially well educated people, could have the same prejudice. It therefore becomes difficult to avoid a prejudice by performing rational inductive thinking.

If my analysis of this inspiration is correct, then every dementia-affected brain could be a gold mine where noble resources are sleeping. Then, similar to the actual gold mines of old,  discovering  huge treasures like a lucky millionaire in the gold rush days, will be very rare. But today, the number of dementia patients is increasing because their longevity is extended by advanced medical care and social support, but the damaged lesions in an aged brain are incurable so that it could be the era for the notable events to becoming a reality. If such a flash of inspiration finally emerges from a dementia-affected brain and saves our planet from the total destruction of our delicate biosphere, this miraculous event would be the greatest success story in the whole history of humankind.

 

44. We are going to see the rabbit

Posted by T. T. and P. R. in July 2021.

 

The English poet, Alan Brownjohn (1931- ), wrote an intriguing and quite impressive poem entitled We are going to see the rabbit and it was published in 1961 [1]. The first stanza is as follows:

 

                                                           We are going to see the rabbit,

                                                           We are going to see the rabbit.

                                                           Which rabbit, people say?

                                                           Which rabbit, ask the children?

                                                           Which rabbit?

                                                           The only rabbit.

                                                            Sitting behind a barbed-wire fence.

                                                            Under the flood lights, neon lights,

                                                            Sodium lights,

                                                            Nibbling grass

                                                            On the only patch of grass

                                                            In England, in England

                                                            (Except the grass by the hoardings

                                                            Which does not count.)

                                                            We are going to see the rabbit

                                                            And we must be there on time.

                                                                          ................

 

In this poem, the extinction of a popular animal species, the rabbit, is graphically depicted. In 1962 Rachel Carson published her piece entitled Silent Spring. In this, once again, the extinction of popular species, such as singing birds, by the wide and uncontrolled use of pesticides is warned of, and backed up by much scientific data. Although Carson’s Silent Spring have been regarded as the trigger point for the creation of many environmental movements, Brownjohn’s To-see-the-rabbit poem has seldom been referred to by environmentalists.

Interestingly, Brownjohn’s poem has been used as teaching material at junior highschool level in England. Also, some people have written in their blogs of their vivid memories, recalling the fresh impressions from their earlier readings. One blogger, Debra, wrote: “What a powerful warning about social, environmental and political breakdown and its costs, all in a concise little poem.” [2].  In a blog from St. George’s Anglican Church, Lowville, Canada, Brownjohn’s To-see-the-rabbit poem was referred to in a sermon entitled: Love creation and love future generations [3]. The sermon was closed with: “So love your neighbour, plant, animal, air, water and especially your future generations of neighbours, but as God loves you.”

Our world is now in danger of having to face the greatest mass extinction in the history of life. Although a great many scientists, politicians and environmentalists are struggling to save our planet, our future is still dark. But still, we can have hope. We still possess unused powerful instruments which can move people’s heart, so that they are motivated to save future generations even by sacrificing their own benefits. Brownjohn’s To-see-the-rabbit poem demonstrates  this fact.

 

Notes.                

[1] Original publication: Alan Brownjohn, The Railings, Digby Press, 1961. Recent publication including the poem: Alan Brownjohn, The Saner Places, Selected Poems, Enitharmon Press, London 2011. The whole form of the poem is seen in the website of Note [2] or in other sites searched by the poem title.

[2] Debra’s blog site; She Who Seeks, posted on 11 Sep. 2013. https://shewhoseeks.blogspot.com/2013/09/to-see-rabbit.html

[3] Love creation and love future generations, Home Sermon Blog, St. George’s Anglican Church, Lowville, Canada. Posted on 19 May 2019. https://www.stgeorgeslowville.ca/love-creation-and-love-the-future-generations/

 

43. Tenderness toward remote future generations

 Posted by TT and PR in April 2021.

The Polish writer, Olga Tokarczuk [tɔˈkart͡ʂuk], was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature, and she delivered her Nobel Lecture [1], entitled The Tender Narrator, on the 7^th December 2019. Inspired by the essence of the lecture, The Polish Academy of Sciences assigned an issue of its quarterly magazine, Academia, to this topic, and gave the subtitle Tenderness to the issue [2]. It includes essays written by contributors from many different fields such as philosophy, psychology,  biology, ecology, theology, art, and engineering sciences.

Some zoologists wrote that savage wolfs care for their pups affectionately. A botanist wrote a piece about plants, which, surprisingly, are showing and accepting tenderness although they have no feelings or a soul. A designer talked about an empathic design, not only for humans but also for other living objects. A theologian warned that the world is becoming insensitive to human tragedies, and indifferent to those who suffer. A philosopher warned that when we direct our attention to screens and pixels, the attention itself becomes flattened.

As Tokarczuk mentioned in her Nobel Lecture, and also mentioned by contributors to the Tenderness issue, to be a tender narrator who sees a wider view, encompassing the whole world but ignoring time, will be possible. If that is true, it would mean that we can be tender narrators of remote future generations that are  thousands or millions of years ahead. Such future generations will surely exist unless humans become extinct sooner. Their physical nature will be almost common with ours. Their soul will also be common. Their environment could be almost common if we tenderly preserve them, unless we are insensitive and indifferent.

Our present world is facing the very great danger of the greatest mass extinction in the whole history of life. However, the crisis is an event in the time scale of millions of years, so that it may be out of sight if our attention becomes flattened into a very thin layer of time. More than that, our interests are always limited to real facts as data, but, there are no data as facts in the future. In order to show tenderness to future generations, we need to expand our field of view into what is in essence an imaginary world. Even though there are such difficulties, we can have hope in the future if we could hear the warning of Olga Tokarczuk and contributors to the Tenderness issue as the voices of prophets.

Note: 

[1] Olga Tokarczuk’s Nobel Lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2018/tokarczuk/lecture/ 

[2]  Academia 1/2020 Tenderness issue:  https://journals.pan.pl/academiaPAS/136179

New piece was posted by WQ, PR, and TT. It is exhibited in Gallery Room 3.

 

 

 

42. Warm Our Hearts II

Posted by WQ, PR, and TT in January 2021.

In this vast and seemingly endless universe we can feel so tiny, even negligible, yet we are the foundations for all of the generations to come. Given this, it is vital that we ask ourselves some important questions. Firstly, ‘what shall we leave behind?’. Is it just the apology, ‘sorry, we didn’t realise what we had done’. Or will we just make excuses for what happened, lacking the courage to admit our wrong.  An error of judgement doesn’t become a mistake unless one refuses to correct such an error. To overcome these matters  we must warm our hearts and change the perceptions of our souls. It is up to us to correct the wrongs that  we have done. Finally, it is up to us to take care of this precious home.

 

ⓒWeijia Qi 2021

 

 

Note

Weijia Qi had submitted another piece of writing with her original art work to this blog two years ago. It is exhibited in the Gallery, Room 2 as 23. Warm Our Hearts. The new piece having title in common comes here. Both pieces emphasize the essence of each individual heart, which cannot be ignored in the vast  spatiotemporal separations (TT).