Through a glass darkly

I'll come back to the title shortly. First I want to talk about synchronicity. I had an email from (son) Dave about my last blog post. Seems on the day I was writing about Douglas Adams and the quantum computer of life, he'd been thinking on the exact same topic. I love it when that happens.

On Thursday evening I went to a Quaker Study Session based on Rex Ambler's work considering the origins of the Quaker movement. We looked at Words of Sarah Jones (as published in "Light's Appearance in the Truth", 1650). Sarah advises that we rest in 'the eternal word', rather than in any manifestations proceeding from the word; to live in the purity and simplicity of truth which has power rather than holding onto the 'form'.

This teaching fits very well with the other works I'm reading: "The Miracle of Mindfulness" by Thich Nhat Hanh and "A Course in Miracles", both of which encourage he who seeks peace on earth to recognise that the peace dwells within and when we seek that inner peace, we can look beyond the world manifested by ego and see reality... which leads me to the title of this article. 'Through a glass darkly' comes from a biblical quote: 1 Corinthians 13 (King James Version), 'For now we see through a glass, darkly'. The Message version suggests 'We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist'. "A Course in Miracles" teaches that my grievances obscure the light; obscure the miracles that the world would offer if set free (through my forgiveness) to do so. In other words, when I look at the world through the distorting lens of my perception, I'm not seeing the true picture, but something akin to Plato's shadows on a cave wall. Recently I read Betty Eadie's book, 'Embraced by the Light' which also speaks of the earthly world as reflecting our thoughts, and the freedom to see the full and true beauty of reality once released from the prison of the body.

At the study evening, one of the questions for discussion was: are there pros and cons of using words, internally or as vocal ministry? We happened to have three physicists in the room, all of them familiar with Stephen Hawking's book, "A Brief History of Time" (in a room of 9 people - how unrepresentative is that of the population?). One of these worthy gentlemen likened the structure of 'self' to the structure of a black hole as described by Hawking: the majority of our being is non-verbal and highly responsive to all that surrounds it, this response mediated by the 'crust' of our 'chattering verbal self - the ego', thus words effectively forming the 'event horizon' of self (if I've understood correctly).

The study evening included this quote (from Quaker writings, 1659):

Let us in the simplicity of truth abide and dwell... that we be not again led back into the errors of those who went before us, who left the power and got into the form ... but that all they (the ones who come after) may be directed and left to the truth, in it to live and walk, and by it guided ... Wherefore, in love and tenderness ... may (we) all in the unity of the Spirit dwell in the pure wisdom, that none may exercise lordship or dominion over another, nor the person of any be set apart, but as they continue in the power of truth, that truth itself in the body may reign, not persons nor forms ... that our path may be as the way of a ship in the sea, which no deceit can follow or imitate.

Further synchronicity: with that image of the ship in my mind, the next morning I came to the reading from 'The Word for Today': When men first learned to navigate the seas by using the stars, a whole new world opened up to them. A common saying in those days was, 'He who is a slave to the compass enjoys the freedom of the open sea.' The devotional went on to encourage readers to let Christ be our compass in life.

'With or without you'

Little did I anticipate when I woke this morning that by 1.30 pm I'd be sitting alone aboard the Red Falcon on my way from Southampton to the Isle of Wight.

One of life's little adventures.

It began almost immediately after I'd swung my legs out of bed with the sound of my mobile phone announcing a text message received. It was from a friend who works in IT as a field engineer. He had a call to attend on the Isle of Wight, and would I like to go along for the ride? I considered the alternative (wash the kitchen floor; change the sheets; do the weekly shop; do some work over the allotment) and looked out at the promising start to the day - decision made.

Recognising that I might be alone and responsible for entertaining myself whilst he was working, I packed a bag with some essentials: book; pen; notebook; glasses; water; mobile phone; money; camera. We arrived at the docks in plenty of time to catch the noon car ferry only to learn that the parts for the call were still en route and unlikely to arrive before 1.30 pm. It gave us some time to find a busy little cafe and have some lunch.

Back to the docks to discover the next departure was 1.30. My friend realised he wouldn't be able to receive the parts and be on board in time, and the next car ferry wasn't until 3 pm. His carefully planned day was beginning to come apart. At that point I spotted the timetable for the high speed passenger ferry (23 minutes, leaving at 1.45 pm). I suggested one of us board the 1.30 ferry with the car and the other wait for the parts and take the passenger ferry ... so there you have it - me on board the car ferry with an automatic car I'm not used to driving.

On the journey down to the docks my friend and I had had a lively discussion during which he had voiced the view that women were less logical thinkers than men. As his boat sped past mine, (photo above) I sent him a smug text: "So you'll concede women are sometimes clear, rational, logical thinkers? :D

At the customer's premises, I left him busy with the kit and took myself and my book off to this grassy knoll where I sat for a while enjoying the warm sunshine and John Cleese's take on 'Life and how to survive it'.

Jersey Boys

Gorgeous weather - blue sky and sunshine - for our trip to London. My friend picked me up around 10 am and we headed into town. There's a cafe called Ossie's in the city centre we like to patronise - stopped there for lunch then drove on to Leicester Square and checked out what films were showing. After enjoying 'Up in the Air' (George Clooney), we bought tickets for Jersey Boys at the half-price Tkts booth (where the sales assistants are extremely helpful). We walked around a while, browsing a couple of Waterstone's stores to give me a chance to spend my book token. I was looking for 'Factoring Humanity' by Robert Sawyer. I read 'Flash Forward' recently and enjoyed it, and I'm reliably informed that 'Factoring Humanity' is the author's own favourite of the novels he's written. Unfortunately it's not currently available in the UK, as far as I can gather.

After a cheap and delicious vegetable lasagne at Yates' in Leicester Square, we walked down to the Prince Edward theatre and took our seats for an evening of entertainment based on the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Super day.

FlashForward - What Did YOU See?

Last year I was an avid follower of FlashForward, the TV series based on a novel by Robert J Sawyer. We had a 'mid-season finale' back before Christmas and sf fans all over the UK eagerly await the resumption of the story.

There was a little coincidence I enjoyed at one point - before the series commenced I bought a 5 disc DVD set of What The Bleep Do We Know, and got around to watching the first disc which happens to describe the 'Two Slits Experiment', so I got a good feeling akin to having done my homework when the experiment was mentioned in FlashForward and I understood the reference.

Meanwhile struggling with impatience to know how the story goes, I got the novel out of the library and read it. I was surprised on different levels - one being that the book was written as long ago as 1999; another that the novel and the TV show are so different. Aspects of the TV series that had grated on me and irritated just weren't there at all in the original novel. The characters in the novel seemed much more sympathetically drawn to me than the key characters invented for the purpose of the TV series. Anyway, some very interesting stuff (although I think I'd need an extended course in quantum physics to be able to fully appreciate the science).