Allan G. Hunter's Blog, page 73
March 3, 2012
Competition is good
And since it is good I'm having a competition right here. It goes like this: the tenth person to reply to this posting by email (click on the "comments" link) will get a free copy of "Spiritual Hunger". And guess what - like all competitions you can stuff the ballot box. You can write in ten times and win! And face it - if you're prepared to do that then you deserve to win.
US and EU residents only, please.
February 26, 2012
February 24, 2012
Time to Speak Out
The place at which I work is currently overhauling and updating the undergraduate curriculum. The committee in its wisdom (or lack thereof) has suggested that the one course requirements in Literature, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology and Psychology should all no longer be part of the core curriculum. They should be 'optional'.
I hardly know where to begin with this - although I have argued to and fro with many emails. The committee, though, stand determined.
I can only say that in my counseling practice, in which I meet with many people far older than college age, I regularly use material from Literature and Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology and Religion in order to help bring people back to a sense of meaning and direction. It turns out that these disciplines, if neglected, cause serious problems to arise later in life. It also appears that when serious problems appear even, knowledge of these areas, even slight knowledge carried over from their undergrad days, can help people deal with the damage they have suffered.
But of course that doesn't matter to the committee, because by the time our students notice the gaping holes in their souls they have been gone for many years.
And so I speak out. But perhaps you have other views?
Forbes House Museum; Memoir workshop April 28th
If you're considering the event (and you probably should) you may want to check out the link. www.forbeshousemuseum.org/calendar.html
The museum is a gorgeous place - and guaranteed to evoke all kinds of inspiring thoughts about memories, how to use them, and the flashes of insight they can give us that nothing else ever comes close to doing….
February 18, 2012
Work In Progress
I've been a little quiet on this site for a while, but that doesn't mean I've zoned out. My newest project is taking shape. I'm calling it "The Lessons" because that seems to describe best what I'm doing - spelling out the lessons we seem to be here on earth to recognize.
The earth is a wondrous school. It keeps handing these lessons to us until we get them sorted. The neat thing is that all the lessons flow into each other. So it's not like a syllabus, carefully crafted to move smoothly from one thing to another; it's a river, taking us from one place to another.
February 8, 2012
Valentine's day
Isn't it time we spent more than one day a year thinking about love? And isn't it a good idea to think about more than just Romantic love?
Wouldn't it be lovely, for example, to move beyond over-priced roses and chocolates and consider the force of love in a new way? Those small figures of plump babies with wings really don't convey anything useful about love; in fact, they reduce it to something cute. Love, the most powerful force in the universe, is not "cute". It is far, far more than that.
[The Six Archetypes of Love talks about this....]
January 29, 2012
Yoga and the Heart
In my yoga class we have a brief period of time at the start and close of each class when we all chant Om. Over time this action has changed for me from "something we do" into a deeper experience.
Talking with my instructor about this, and paying attention to the chanting itself, alerted me to the fact that if I experiment with the right pitch of my voice I can feel a vibration, like a horizontal thread, through my whole body at the heart level. My heart seems to vibrate; and this is, apparently, exactly the purpose. It feels cleansing.
Which set me in mind of those images we see of Tibetan monks all chanting Om, and of those immensely long horns they blow, which seem to make sounds at the same pitch. These are all versions of Om. The sacred Om is a sound that causes the heart to vibrate at a level that connects us all. When the monks blow those horns in the Himalayas it is not just noise, it is heart calling to heart across the vast spaces of the world.
January 27, 2012
Sifting through….
That's what I was doing when I was looking at my spam folder. And suddenly, right there, was a link for a site that offered to sell me counterfeit passports. Any country I wanted. "High grade printing techniques" they claimed, were the secret of their success. I notice they didn't offer any guarantees, though. No get-out-of-jail-free cards.
Either way one looks at this it is a scam. Either they take the money and you never hear from them again, or they deliver "counterfeit" (their word) goods with intent to abet something illegal.
Of course, it could be a way for these folks to get information about you in order to raid your bank account. Or possibly blackmail is the intent?
Wonderful place, the web.
January 22, 2012
The Iron Lady - Thatcherism again….
I confess, I haven't yet seen "The Iron Lady". I'm afraid to. I'm afraid about how angry I'll get. I've been reading reviews, though. In the US people are charmed; in the UK people seem to be stunned that a movie could miss the point so badly.
I left England, nearly thirty years ago, when Thatcher's reign was at its height. I did so because almost all the jobs had died out, and Thatcher was killing what few remained. Some areas suffered 30% unemployment for decades (which translated into almost total unemployment in the 16-20 age group). This, I will remind you, was the Prime Minister who was only driven out of office, at last, because she insisted on a "Poll Tax". A Poll Tax is a tax on being alive, and cynically Thatcher enacted it on those she had caused to be thrown out of work or who had never been able to work at all, arguing that they'd never vote for her party anyway, so why not upset them? Yes, she taxed the unemployed. At the time the nation could hardly believe it, and riots erupted. Even her own cabinet was outraged; and that was that.
At one point she asked her alma mater, Oxford University, for an honorary degree. She was refused, and the reason given was that she had done "more to destroy higher education in England than any politician in the last two centuries". Her response? She cut the University's funding. Wounded vanity is a terrible thing.
This is the Thatcher whose economic policy was to take North Sea Oil revenues and spend the money (it's all gone now) without arranging for any long term investment or meaningful return for the population, let alone a coherent energy policy. The economic misery in England was very real for many people, for a very long time.
I could go on. But I think the point is this: I'm not that keen on movies that depict tyrants and somehow endeavor to show them as sympathetic while glossing over their worst offenses. I feel there's something immoral in that.
