Zen there was.

There was no way, but...

The re-enactment weekend was brilliant - just the therapy I needed. I realise that I physically need the exercise that these events provide in order to relax properly & the archery was so peaceful. I must look into

I have been looking for an alternative to aerobics for some time - the videos all seem to be aimed at women & I find even the (very small) minority who aren't just incompetent annoying: "Are you having fun, girls?". I saw 'The Samurai Sword Workout' on Amazon and just had to get it and although it was hopelessly crap - very sparse on technique, incredibly thin in the range of exercises and badly sequenced with no build up, let alone warm up, it made me wonder if I could better.

So, last weekend I took my boken out into the garden in the sunshine and just went through some of the cuts I remembered from my aikido training. For once the builders were silent, the sun shone and the birds sang and I realised my dream of experiencing a 'training montage' from a martial arts film :-)

After four such sessions, each one blessed with sun & quiet, I can say that the indications are great - It's very relaxing, it's fun because I can pretend I'm Rutger Hauer and it seems to keep me out of breath for half an hour without anything starting to hurt. Most importantly, it feels like me again :-)

God is Green

Watching a Channel 4 programme of the above name. Only this morning we were speaking with pessimism about the way recent weather patterns seem to have convinced people we have failed to with mere persuasion, only to have recourse to do 'too little, too late'.

For all its naivity, it contained the revelation (heh) that after years of portraying climate change as either another satanic hoax by the hippy lefty pagan scientist evolutionary alliance or as welcome signs of the apocalypse, some Christian Right pressure groups are now saying climate change exists and that Christians should do something to reduce it. This reminded me of a conviction that I have not thought about for a while: that the kind of uncharacteristicly large scale enlightened self interest required to save this planet might only reasonably be expected to be engendered amongst the necessary billions of people through religious faith. I believe some sort of moral framework is needed to condition the new converts' zeal or they will try to impose changes to the detriment of civil rights. And thinking about the Christian Right, perhaps even then...

The earth is Yhwh's, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein.
Psalm 24:1