Lost Land by Tim Veater.


The giant structure spans the vale,

Rises above the River Chew,

It was here where first my game began,

Now very different place to what I knew,

Though much remains, a remnant of past lives,

A lingering, nostalgic and iconic view.


Memories like ghosts haunt every part,

The milking cows that daily queued,

And gathered at the five-barred gate,

Responding to the echoing call

Of "OYE OYE OYE! Come on then you",

Of white lactate, to give their all.

And here too the cart horse 'Violet' stood,

A white dull beast yet climbed upon to ride,

My bony legs stretched across its big broad back,

And off we'd trudge across the field,

No fear of gallop or of haste,

Just its kind gesture to placate a boy.


In Summer Time the earth baked hard,

In Winter water-logged and wet,

A lake appeared which froze to form,

An ice-rink in the mind at least,

The cloven hooves and iron shoes all left their mark,

Now only gravel for a dull car park.


The baking cow-pats in the sun,

Loved by the shiny beatles, one on one,

The steaming piles of horse's dung,

An olefactory feast from recent rain,

An endless vista that ran and ran,

To far-off Stanton Drew, through balmy lane.


Here weekly people came, though strong in faith,

As in a rite of passage or of Spring,

They bowed to pray and rose to sing

And afterwards shook hands, renewed,

From far afield they came to meet and part again,

A solemn task remembrancing.


This boy looked up to all their adult ways,

Ear-wigged their latest news, though gossip not allowed,

Naively ignorant of all their joys and pains,

Carefully concealed in Sunday smiles and clothes,

This was a world apart yet all my world,

Wedded to an ancient text, in 17th Century prose.


And now the Prodigal returns, as then he always did,

Across the fields towards Guy's Farm,

And Father Sherborne with a joyous hug and kiss.

After many years have passed, all is forgiven.

Now flocks of strangers walk the paths,

Blissfully unaware and unmindful of that distant heaven.


Time and progress has leached the lives

And all that's left is view.

The giant arches no longer echo to the songs of praise

Each Sunday from those humble wooden pews.

Society has changed, more affluent now,

But strangely more detached, confused.


Dependent on the Internet, no time to choose,

'E-mail', 'WhatsApp', 'FaceBook', 'YouTube',

The milking cows have grazed their last

As have the birds their song,

Just shiny cars rush past, or crash,

And people flock instead to worship at the golden calf.

Tim Veater

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The Bible has longevity for a reason, the reason being it is foundational to our society and psychological existence. It operates on many levels and it has to be read with reasoned interpretation. Is it the word of God or is it Man's concept of what it might be? It is both. Is it historical fact or mystical belief? It is both. The reading is only the first stage of a process; it is the interaction that is important. It speaks to the mind, to the body and to the soul, depending on what you want from it. It can be objective. It can be subjective. Start at the beginning and work to the end, or dip in as the mood takes you. Even the lists of 'begats' are not without their purpose: they put us in our place and remind us of the inumerable number of persons who have gone before and how insignificant we are. Every sort of person and behaviour is represented over thousands of years of human development, all thousands of years ago, but influencing the ones in between. Being reviled and adored in equal and opposite measure. Its stories are apocryphal, tragic and inspiring. Its descriptions of despair and longing unequalled. Its prophesies inexplicable and mesmerising. It is a work of literary genius that has a spiritual and moral dimension that aims towards human fulfillment and virtue. It help us cope with the real world and with our real selves. What does it say about itself? "Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay." And then there is, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." And then, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Make of it what you will and good luck!.

13.5.2025: "I'm very well. Thank you for asking."

Actually, I usually reply to the question, "How are you?" with, "Not as good as you!"

VOYEURISTIC TENDENCES !

I agree with your assertion that people are endlessly fascinating and watching them from afar is an all-consuming passion. People like to be watched and don't like to be watched in equal measure. There is an art to the watching business, pretending not to be watching and pretending not to realise you are being watched. To continue watching when you have been 'sussed' is somewhat ill-mannered and can result even in a physical confrontation if pursued - the famous "Are you looking at me?" syndrome. Yet people go to great lengths to be watched professionally. Actors, models, musicians, public speakers, television personalities, all go out of their way to be watched and hopefully admired for their looks, personal charisma and achievements. The Internet is over-flowing with (mainly young) people showing off, attracting millions of views and viewers. Voyeurism is big business. Lives, either short or long are always fascinating to a greater or lesser extent. Usually you have to die before people discover what they were. The three I have just read about in the Times obituary were a man who travelled to India from Scotland in 1959 and stayed there, writing books about his travels and adventures; a vet from Kent who was the first to describe BSE in cattle in 1985; and a Nobel prize winning chemist, who developed chemical 'machines', a fraction of a human hair in size. In our own lives we recall the interesting or famous people we have met, even briefly. But every life brings with it a word of caution, summed up by this final and rather amusing paragraph: 'In the autumn of his life, when he grew increasingly deaf, garrulous and opinionated, most conversations began with, "I was a vet you know?" It was a favourite line at the doctor's, where he thought he may get preferential treatment. Calling GPs "failed vets", somewhat weakened his case.'

14.5.2025: To Ryan Tower:  The three religions of Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism , that ostensibly make up about half the world's population, all stem from older civilizations and beliefs. WIKI suggests they number about 16 million, 2.4 billion and 1.9 billion respectively. The disproportionate influence of zionism in relation to population is immediately apparent. It goes some way to explain the paranoiac and aggressive psycopathy of that tribe, though as always we need to distinguish between the cultural and theological, the religious and sectarian elements. The distinguishing feature of these three belief systems, is monotheism in contrast to the polytheism of earlier and eastern ones, although post 'Jesus of Nazareth', the concept of a 'trinity' developed in Christianity. The tribal jews emerged from Egypt, on a forty year desert perambulation still retaining elements of Egyptian outlook and beliefs. There are many parallels between Egypian and Judeao/Christian ones relating to deities and after-life. There is a constant Old Testament theme of Jews lapsing back into the worship of 'foreign gods'. 'Baal' a god of the Levant with roots back to Babylon, is indistinguisable from depictions of the Egyption Osiris. However Persion Zoroastrianism with its concept of a monotheistic divinity and in effect a 'devil' predates them all. What we may conclude through all of this, is that intelligent humans attempt to make sense of what they observe in the physical world and their emotional response to it. Like currents in a stream, they flow and intertwine to produce the religious perspectives we still have today. Some hold that our scientific knowledge has made them obsolete, although daily we are reminded how they still play an important part in both behaviour and current events.

16.5.2025:   I think I led on the bed and dropped off (to sleep not the bed lol) Then about 3.30 rode into town and had a picnic on Newlyn Green after getting a lens refixed. People were out in force and dodging them on the bike can be fraught. One rough old bloke drifted across my path just as I was approaching from behind. I yelped and avoided him but for some reason he took great exception and fumed, later when we met, threatening to push me off my bike! Meek, weak me, just put up with it, until he's said his piece and moved on to some other unsuspecting fool. Just another uneventful day for me, though I have to be in town for two. I have a new phone that I can't control because I don't know how to work it, with all the icons, the swiping and touching, the shiny screen, the turning on and turning off, reception and no reception, "can you hear me/can't you hear me?" Having rung a number and eventually got through, I had to enter card details but couldn't get back to the numbers page. The thing drives me to distraction, but that's just a sign of the times and how detached I am from modern technology. However the more 'on line' we get, the more AI we get, the more de-humanised and remote we get. Control of everything becomes predicated on how tech-savvy you are. If you're not, access and communication become more difficult, if not impossible. Instead of being in charge of the machine, the machine takes charge of you. It is the new iteration of 'survival of the fittest' and your survival depends on cracking the new hieroglyphics and knowing what ones to press. Increasingly you find yourself interacting with machines rather than people. It's much worse than dealing with a foreigner. At least they are human. If the machine doesn't understand you, you've had it! This is all particularly noticeable in the world of finance. If and where they still exist, Bank staff have been stripped of their human agency to act. More and more actions can only be carried out on line and the relationship between you and your money is more remote and subject to the control of others. The days of seeing the Bank Manager with the power to decide, have gone.  All very well if you can go 'on line' and negotiate all the security hurdles, but what if you have no access to the internet or lack the skills?  Effectively you become semi-detached from the commercial world and whatever resources you have accumulated. The ability to pay for essential services becomes impossible. Of course all of this is magnified if cash is phased out. Already some businesses will not accept it. We can keep it under the bed but will it have any purchasing power? Will it be worth any more than the paper it is written on? Government appears relaxed about these changes, the most important since the introduction of the printing press, the introduction of the telegraph and telephone, the type-writer, the adding machine and paper money. It was always the case that those who could read and write had a distinct advantage over those who couldn't. In present and future times the ability to navigate these technological skills will determine success, failure or even survival.

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