Bins

Wow, I just witnessed one of my English neighbors, a nice plump and rather loud man, yelling at one of my other neighbors for a full 15 minutes because he did not line up his trash bins appropriatley. The offending neighbor is from the Carribean, and he would not give in, he listened to the man and then pointed at him and stated his case, mainly that there is really no room for any of the bins anywhere. Then, a skinny little man with a Groucho Marx mustache, probably German, came over to diffuse things! They diffused, everybody shook hands, the Marx man walked away, and the English man started right at it again. In fact, it is still going on now.
This to me just highlights the blind eye English turn to the reality of their population demographics. There are more brown people, from India, Pakistan, North Africa, and the Caribbean, than there are English in most cities. Only the farming villages retain the English dominance, and I reckon it won't last for long. While some of the Cambridge profs. simply don't believe me when I say that in 30 years it may be hard to find a Shakespeare play, I have seen the example in America. The "minority" culture becomes the dominant culture, and the "English" kids two generations from now will be demanding reggae bbqs instead of fancy dress discos. What strikes me most is, changes like this simply don't have to be traumatic, if we engage them and talk openly about them there is a chance that a wide mix of cultures flourish simultaneously. Sometimes I wish I had gone into urban planning or public health, because I really would like to help these transitions. And I would like more flowers and fountains in our public spaces, and grey water to be put to good use, and for corporations to provide excellent childcare on premises, every single one, as a matter of course. The bins today are just an outlet for a deeper tension. In hope,

Equinox Blessings

May the light of summer stay within our hearts through the ensuing Autumn and secretive Winter~ I have had a hard time letting go of an endless party and bare feet, it was just the antidote for last years settling in, and I welcomed today with whispers of frost in the background of my mind. Yet when I turn, and drum, and rest inside polarity, the sun shines in and treasures open up within me. I am loving this journey, uncomfortable as it has been, for it is truly growing me up into some strange bird I never knew before...some strange bird with a very shaved head and teary eyes and a cat for a daily best friend. My deepest love to all my lovers! May our joy be shared~

7: Castles

Ok, we just don't have old castles in America. There are a large variety of castles and cathedrals here, from different periods of time and in different states of repair. I have really come to like being around them, not necessarily in them, because they evoke a sense of time in me. I understand that if there is a pointy spire there is a tomb below, if there is a great circle of grey blocks it is probably Norman, that the fear of the forest was palpable and big moats were for them what homeland security is for us. Wealth was measured in land claimed, and castles were really like little villages. The human need for arts resulted here, in these centuries of castles, around wealth and psychology...jousting, great balls, jesters, minstrels, falconry, painting. They lived in thier self importance really. Even the churches were a show of power. We have visited a few, and will get out to see many more in the coming year...because there is a permanent structure to mark the passing of decades further back than I have ever contemplated, and something erie and old that it wakes up inside of me...some preposterous sort of memory! And well, we all love to play save the princess don't we?

Medium

So today when I was swimming laps I had the occasion to observe a striking and obvious metaphor for English sensibilities. This is the medium speed lane. There is a slow lane, a medium lane, and two fast lanes at the pool. When I showed up to swim there were two people in the slow lane, one in a fast lane, one fast lane completely open, and eight stuffed into the medium lane! While I do not consider myself a fast swimmer, not being at the competitive level, I certainly made use of the empty fast lane. That is the American in me, an opportunist, or maybe I just like having leg room. In any case, these people just don't have the desire to differentiate like I do; they are happy being sardines together, where they all play by the rules. It's called being sensible :) ..

School Days

Autumn billows her way in with commanding ferocity this week! The kids have started back to school, and as is typical for English families, they attend different primary schools. Because it is so densely populated, it is not so common to get spots at the same location, and so this year Aurora cycles to a really sweet hippy school in a big, old English building not far from our home. Mathias is transported via private taxi each day to his sweet, tiny church school on the edge of town. Crazy! But that's how they do it, the taxi company is at the service of the school admissions team in helping get those youngsters who live over the 2 mile walking distance there. Here are two pictures from last year, when they were both at the church school, and we all cycled everyday; we didn't know we could ask for taxi service then :).