Now The Summer Has Gone

Now The Summer Has Gone. Such an almost appropriate title. We’ve had a lovely couple of weeks of sunshine and bright skies. And now the rain has returned.

It’s Springtime in fact. We hang our coats on the changing seasons in the UK. Even though each season tends to be very changeable in itself. Change is perhaps a part of the British psychology. Probably helps us to be a little bit adaptable. Like a flexible friend, on our good days.

I’m betting that my Australian cousin, living in an Outback where the main issue to be dealt with is heat and a lack of water, is going to have different characteristics to me. Possibly tougher and hardier. Like a pair of old leather gardening gloves. Possibly.

We carry the weather with us. The environment we grow up in affecting us as much as our genes.

I’m at a Costa Coffee in Bishops Briggs, a new environment for me, while writing this, as I get needed work done on the car while travelling down to a family get together in the peak district of Derbyshire later today. Ach, it’s all part of the ride.

And it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting much Summertime, when we eventually get to our destination. But one things for certain. We’ll be getting some sort of weather.

If My Eyes Were Blind

Sunday Song - If My Eyes Were Blind by David Olney

David Olney was one of those notorious Songwriters Songwriters. Not famous, but revered by many who were. But, famously, he died on stage. Quietly apologising in the middle of a song, he dropped his head and passed away while sitting on his chair, still holding his guitar.

That is, as they say, the way to do it.

Lift Me Up (Hold Me Up)

When parents are gone it can be the case that a lot of “What If’s?” remain.

That was certainly true in my case. I don’t think I ever really knew my mum and dad. But mostly, as is often and understandably the case with children (including adult ones) my focus was generally more on the fact that they didn’t know me.

None of this is an open wound for me, and hasn’t been for a long time. I made peace with it all well before they died. Albeit, regrets do occasionally surface.

It is, and was, what it is, and was. As they say.

Lift Me Up (Hold Me Up) was written as a response to my mum’s long period at the end with dementia. For many years she didn’t seem to recognise us, let alone “know” us. It was incredibly sad to see, and most of the grieving happened, as people who have had this experience will know, well before she died.

We all need to be held up at some point in our lives. Hopefully we have someone to do that for us. I wish that for you.

The Gathering

The Gathering was a song inspired by a tale of wolves.

When this apex predator (not to be confused with ya recently prevalent oligarch predator - apex predators are actually worth preserving) was re-introduced to Yellowstone Park in the U.S.A. many thing changed for the better.

The reduction in the number of Elks helped to allow the vegetation and fauna to thrive in areas it hadn’t previously. This in turn helped to stabilise the river banks, improve the quality of the water, and even changed the course of the rivers. And all of that helped a more varied number and type of creatures thrive. Overall it was seen as a great success.

Predation is a part of the world we live in. We ourselves are predators. Some, one of my sons included, would argue that we should grow out of that particular custom in regard to meat based products. But never the less, so much of the world we have grown up in has become what it is, because of this feature of our ecosystem.

As hinted at earlier, things can get out of hand. Some sorts of human predator are more like cancer cells, destroying and damaging everything except, in their own scheming, their own well being. Although undoubtedly that too.

It might be time, in this developing scenario, for the human elks to start fighting back. In one way or another. I don’t know how that might manifest itself on a personal level, but it’s coming to that. Otherwise I don’t see a great outcome for the human race in our global Yellowstone. There is too much shit hitting too many fans at the moment.

But I do think we’ll find a way through. When the loud voices are booming, that is sometimes all we can hear. But the biggest changes, for the better, still happen, are still happening, away from the spotlight.

The Gathering is usually in a quiet valley.

That Engagement Ring

When I saw today’s song title, That Engagement Ring, I started to think about the middle word.

I’ve only heard it regularly used in two contexts now I come to think about it. The first one being in regard to the decision to get married and the period prior to the wedding. Then, secondly, as a reference to the engagement with an enemy during times of war.

And much hilarity ensued. War and Marriage! Lollity LOL.

But despite the chuckles, I’m glad to say that, after the initial engagement and the subsequent wars between myself and my partner in crime, Ineke, it has proven possible, over many years, to lay down our weapons (most of them) and build a strong and fairly stable peace.

There is hope for us all ;-)

You’re welcome.

Blow The Flame

We asked the Grand-weans which was their favourite bit of our recent camping trip. All answers involved the time spent around the wood fire.

Mine too. If you’ve ever made a fire outside, you know, you KNOW, that it really is the only distraction needed of an evening. Just staring into that orange glow is enough. It puts most of everything in perspective. And it beats the hell out of the black box in the living room. Or the one in our pockets.

The simple pleasures, as they say. Weird creatures that we are.

So, anyway. It’s a review of a kind.

And the recommendation is … Blow The Flame.

ps. Happy Birthday to three of our boys, Joel, Eryn and Michael over the next four days.

Droom Je Al?

Droom Je Al?

All the right letters, but not necessarily in the right order?

Well, that’s true, If you’re English. But not if you’re Dutch.

The letters, when we use the secret code, now come to mean - “Are you dreaming already?”

This song was my first attempt at writing in a foreign language. It’s a lullaby, and I thought it might be a way to let our grandchildren hear a bit of their Oma’s native tongue, when we weren’t around. Our daughter-in-law used to play it to them when they were settling down at night. And they do sleep well. So, in that respect, job done. Also the two older boys are now making a concerted effort at learning some Dutch on Duolingo. That makes me happy.

It’s a source of wonder that these letters on our keyboard, the simple ABC’s of our alphabet, have got such endless possibilities. They open doors of knowledge. New worlds and civilisations. A way of understanding our fellow humans. An almost limitless well of creativity.

And sometimes, they can simply send us to sleep.

I must admit, I hope that doesn’t happen too often with mine.

Though it is hard to get them in the right order every time.

Makin’ Bacon

I was playing with fire at the weekend. Camping with my son, and three of my grandsons. The sort of stereo-typical male activity that is really a whole lot of fun. I don’t know whether the ladies (in general) would get such a kick out of it. Maybe they would. But I am sure that the stereotypes, like the cliches, don’t come out of nowhere. They contain truth.

Anywhere, there we were frying burgers and Makin’ Bacon. Sleeping under the stars, and imagining we were back there in a world where we went out hunting to put food on the table. And it is all imaginary of course. But it does make a fella feel more alive. Closer to nature. In tune with the universe. All of that.

As I grow older, I’d rather do more of that kind of thing than less. I simply haven’t done enough of it in my life until now, and I do get a kick out of it. I would like to be a little more self sufficient out there on the mountains and in the woods.

So, I will continue to head out to howl with non-existent wolves, and to try and make up for some of that, seemingly, lost time.

Nothing’s lost though. It’s all happening now. Or still to come.

Raven

Today’s Sunday Song is Raven, by Jewel.

Cheer Up

I play word and number puzzles. I exercise for goodness sake.

In other words, I cause problems for myself….intentionally! For fun. Or at least with good reason.

So maybe when a problem surfaces … one that I didn’t cause, and didn’t ask for … I should Cheer Up and pretend it did all happen intentionally.

After all, there is still that magical potential for solving something that previously was unsolved. What a dopamine rush that can be.

Hey Jean

Hey Jean,

What is going on inside your head? We really could never guess.
It would be wonderful to hear you speak. To hear you put those twinkle eyed thoughts into words. To see your sense of humour and stubborness and persistance being expressed in language we can understand.

But, in many ways, perhaps that was unnecessary. It all came out anyway. You’re a life force and your body, and gestures, and face, express all of that so beautifully.

I haven’t seen you for a while. I hope you’re OK. I will visit. Maybe not many more opportunities left. That’s what happens when contact is lost. I’m sorry about that.

For now, keep twinkling. Keep dancing.

It’s nice to have a song to bring you to mind.

A Cord Of Three Strands

Two is strong. But not always enough.

Three can make things stronger. A Cord Of Three Strands is not quickly broken.

We could take that principle to infinity I suppose. But we’re not infinite beings. We live in a material world, where small changes can make a big difference.

There is certainly strength when one becomes two.

But there is far greater strength, greater depth, greater resilience when we add one more. It’s a good principle to be aware of I think. (And I don’t think it means that constantly adding “one more” will indefinitely make things better).

ps. I’m going camping with the Grandweans this weekend, so hopefully our tent cords hold fast.

Dancing At The Disco

There is, allegedly, a place for everything.

And everything, in turn, has its place.

Learning at school. Driving on the road. Dancing At The Disco etc.

Thankfully, we don’t limit ourselves like that. In fact, the more we try things in places (and ways, and at times) when they are not usually attempted, the more flexible and creative and spontaneous we become.

Yes, I will learn on the loo! I will dance in the doldrums!

I will …

….um, driving on the road. Let’s keep that one.

All The Freaks

Time to embrace our freakishness.

I mean all those freakish things like a belief in justice, and compassion, and kindness, and love for our neighbour, and for simply honesty. And a desire to be courageous when it matters.

These standards are possibly in the process of becoming the new weird.

Except that they remain things to aspire to as human beings. And they always will do.

In the meantime, this one’s to All The Freaks.


ps. I just listened to a couple of American freaks and I was once again inspired to be a better me.

I Don’t Like You

I have to be honest. There are a few people to whom I could quite easily say …

… ”I Don’t Like You”. To put it mildly.

Two of them feature in this video I made.

I would generally want to send love and peace out to almost everybody, if I could. But some individuals have travelled so far out of the orbit of “Likeability” that they’ve managed to fly far beyond Mars, to some yet undiscovered solar system. An unusual solar system, in that it is completely free of any light source.

A solar system without a sun.

This universe we live in is not always the universe we would ideally desire. We have to somehow make peace with both it and it’s inhabitants, if we want to thrive.

But sometimes it’s hard.

Die With A Smile

Today’s Sunday Song, Die With A Smile, from two modern performers Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga who do have that old fashioned X-factor. Great song, which I hadn’t heard before, coz I’m out of it, by two great performers.

Having said that Lady Gaga wins the award for worst ever use of a cigarette as a prop. Lol. Other than that, it’s a great watch.

The Phone’s Ringing

The Phone’s Ringing.

That used to be the only thing that a phone could do. Now it can do pretty much everything.

Peeps are worried about Ai, World Wars, Global Warming, Stray Meteorites, Alien Invasions, Online Trolls, Big Brother, Musk, Trump, and other bad smells and potentially lethal occurrences.

Wait till our Smart Phone evolve legs! Or get integrated with Drones! Or start being put in baby’s wee gift basket of things that the NHS thinks are necessary for a healthy baby.

That’s when we should really press the panic button.

In the meantime it’s good to remember who the boss is.

It’s ME!

It’s definitely not my Mini Ringer/Beeper/”Smart” Notification Box.

Radium

I went through a period of trying to write commercial songs. Fix Me Up, and Cover Me, featured a few blogs earlier, were two of them.

Radium is another. It was a rewrite of an earlier tune I’d written, called Breathe. Funnily, there’s a friend I have who isn’t mad on any of my music, except for that earlier rendition of the song, which he adored. And now, sadly for him, that version is lost in the mists of time.

Anyway, I want to say that, although I’m very happy with the song writing craftsmanship of those earlier uncommercial “commercial” songs I wrote, they never felt like my songs.

There is no moral lesson to this. I completely understand when people pursue that writing route. And it’s a real achievement to get to a point where you make real money (i.e. profit) from the craft of songwriting. But it isn’t a route I want to go down anymore. I want to write songs that express my own vision and personality, not ones that try to meet other criteria.

Mostly, for better or worse, I’ve done that.

However, I do think, ironically, that in this day and age, with the advent of Ai, and a kind of predicability to most commercial “pop” music, we might be on to something. “Doing your own thang!”, though it be weird and quirky, as long as it is GOOD, could be what people start to want.

In fact that’s always been the case. Back in the day Punk became popular, largely because it kicked against the popular music of the time. It brought a fresh vitality and energy to things.

Music will always reinvent itself, even if some of the foundations remain unchanging and unchanged. I would argue it’s always better to avoid trying to copy someone else, however great they me be. We can’t help being influenced, but we don’t need to try to mimic.

So I pursue this path regardless of outcomes that could be called “success” in many peoples eyes. At the very least, it’s fun and interesting.

Bone Dry

At some point I started to realise that everything is not how it seems.
Maybe you’ve had the same experience, maybe not. For me at least, no drugs were involved.

And that realisation has become, over time, both liberating and discombobulating. The end conclusion of which has been that the only thing I can be absolutely sure of is that of my conscious experience. Even if that’s a delusion, it’s a real delusion. One that I’m actually having.

”I’m deluded, therefore I am”. You could say.

And you might well not argue with that. But I would also understand if it all sounds like bunkum to you. Maybe when I talk like this, you’d like to get off the bus. Or just hope I return to my senses.

But in reality, despite this philosophical meandering, I continue to live, day to day, as though my experience is real. It’s necessary. Ironically, I feel more locked into reality than I ever was before.

Bone Dry was probably intuitively saying something along these lines when I wrote it, on a walk down from Beinn Ghuilean, a few years. It wasn’t a thought through song at all. It just kind of happened.

It’s all kinda happening.

Are you still there?

Fix Me Up

I remember writing the beginnings of Fix Me Up while driving down a busy M6 around Manchester, then trying to record the idea into my phone. A little bit dangerous. Lucky that I didn’t end up needing to be fixed up myself at A&E, to be honest.

Body and mind are constantly being damaged, and repaired, throughout our lifetimes. But we’re a weird kind of creature. One that does things that we know will damage us. We cause ourselves to need repairing.

I was brought up with the idea that all of that started in a garden, with Adam and Eve intentionally going against God’s will. And thus humankind as a whole became cursed with this thing that some call “sin”. Something we needed “saving” from.

It’s an explanation of a kind. But it doesn’t do it for me, and hasn’t for a long while.

Rather, to me, and counter intuitively, our self damaging behaviour looks like an outcome of our more recently evolved intelligence finding itself unwittingly in conflict with some of its own more ancient evolved algorithms.

As an example, our more ancient brain evolved to need to find food. We gathered and hunted, because food was out there, and we needed it in order to live. As a result our bodies were very active and expected to be very active. And we ate less.

Then, with our more further evolved intelligence, we invented agriculture and domestication. And so we were able to keep our food sources a lot closer to hand. So much easier. And using minimum possible effort was something else our ancient brains were evolved for. So win-win, right?

Much further down the line we found ways to need fewer and fewer people to produce our food. On top of that we invented refrigeration. And suddenly I (lucky ultra modern human) can pop into the kitchen and eat as MUCH as like, with barely any effort.

A lot of the time I have done that. Because my ancient brain had also evolved to take advantage of food (eat it!) whenever it became available. You just never knew when the next chance to feed would come along. So it’s understandable that we take advantage of our luck.

And yet all of our modern illnesses have been born out of these advancements. Diabetes, heart attacks, cancer and fragile limbs in old age, being some of the big ones. Almost non-existent according to anthropologists before the agricultural age. We’re living longer (vaccines and other modern medicine helping in this regard) but we’re suffering far more as we grow older. And largely unnecessarily.

And it’s not just our diets and fitness. So many more of our self damaging behaviours can be seen through this lens of “intelligence leading to solutions, leading to more problems to solve”.

Maybe we will find further solutions to all of those self harming ones. Or maybe, as for many millions of extinct animals from the past, our evolutionary history is leading down the cul-de-sac of our own destruction. Who knows?

But hey, we’re very innovative, we humans. I’m optimistic. Our scientific fixers might even find solutions that don’t require any extra effort on our part. You never know.

In the meantime though, our brains are capable of getting a bit more tuned in to the ancient part of our smart grey matter, and adapting our behaviour to match our bodily needs.

It might a bit of work, but we can do that.


ps - No magical theological explanations are needed. They never are. And the actual explanations, when we slowly find them through observation and learning, tend to be far more interesting, helpful and awe inspiring.