we think ourselves indestructible?

"The time fore-ordained unto the peoples and kindreds of the earth is now come. The promises of God,as recorded in the holy Scriptures, have all been fulfilled." Baha'i Faith.

Travelling to work in the morning and back home in the evening on a bus gives me time to observe people in the town. I am still each day astonished by the silly and often dangerous things they do. Cycling the wrong way on a one-way street I regularly see, but yesterday it was someone driving a car the wrong way! He realised his error only when faced with a bus coming the other direction!
Then there are those who walk across the road stepping out into moving traffic. What is worse when I see a parent drag a child across a road, when the child but not the parent has seen the car coming towards them.

We spend so much time thinking about this physical world, and almost nothing about what we are to face when we leave it.

A pun, my word!

Ever been so involved in your work that you cannot stop thinking about it, even for a moment? It fills all your waking moments, and even in your dreams? Then you are getting how I have been getting over the past few weeks. All that stress, building up like a head of steam in a boiler and it has to come out sometime.
Sadly, there are those that lash out, whilst others retreat to an 'inner world'. I have found that the best form of stress relief is laughter. I am known in my office, and amongst my family too, as an atrocious punster.*
A pun, my word - indeed! A pun is a play on words, and I find it a great escape valve for the tensions of the day.

* Eggsactly, there we were cracking yolks (jokes) which were getting more and more eggstreme, and more and more eggscruciating, and all because the landlady of my student digs (long time ago), offered me a hard boiled egg with the words "have an oeuf" and I, without thinking replied "what on oeuf for?" (well it was first thing in the morning, and I was not fully awake!

As William Sears titled his book "God Loves Laughter" - it introduced me to the Baha'i Faith.

how times have changed

Whilst going through my email today, I found one advertising a meeting of the local branch of the BCS (British Computer Society) where a speaker will talk about managing the deluge of email in the workplace.
It set me thinking, as I recently discovered an old issue of the local newsletter from around 20 years ago. It was, like all newsletters of the time, printed and one of the articles in it was from me! I had written introducing this new means of communication - electronic mail. It was when the internet was still relatively unknown and messages were sent using dedicated gateways on a process called UUCP. Access was by modem and phone line, with many people using 'acoustic couplers' on their telephone handset. That was capable of a fantastic 1200 baud (or about 120 characters per second) !

I had been involved in getting a local company to set up international electronic links, and so I was invited to write about it in a couple of articles in the local BCS newsletter.

How times have changed. Everyone now takes email for granted. It should not be surprising though, really. The Baha'i Faith Writings have mention of world communications, and even in the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible it speaks of 'lightnings that flash to and fro' along with 'chariots jostling in the streets' as things to come in the future.

people networking

sometimes when so involved with your day-to-day life (maybe pressure to get a job done), it is so easy to forget a great source of help - other PEOPLE! Whether by email or phone, a posting on a support web page or just talking to someone at the water cooler (in the restaurant/snack bar, etc) it is by sharing your needs (how can I do this, what is the best way to do that) that we can both give and receive help.
It was said long ago "No man is an island", and in the Baha'i writings we find "God loves those who work together in groups". Humans are social animals, not meant to live in solitary isolation. All the teachings from the great religions give guidance and laws for living as community groups.
This goes for our work as well as our home life. We should be open to forming bonds of loving support and friendship because of the help we can give others, not just because we ourselves want to be helped.

taken for granted

I went out shopping this evening, looking for food to take to our community Intercalary Day party. In the Baha'i calendar the Intercalary Days (February 26 to March 1) are days for hospitality and giving of gifts, and they come just before the month of fasting.
It took me a moment to realise what was wrong. Not only were there no lights in the car park, there were no lights in the shop either - apart from someone waving a torch around, guiding those who were in the building to the exit. We so rarely have a power cut that we assume power will always be available to us. Our whole lives, it seems, are dependant on constant power - for our lighting and heating, public services, entertainment and everything else.
And yet, we are all so reluctant to cut our energy consumption or to use renewable resources such as wind or water power.

So much to do

We are living our lives so much in the electronic realm that keeping up with it all takes more and more of our time. Websites and Blogs to update, reading email, maintaining contacts with friends and colleagues through both professional sites and social networking ones - we risk spending such a large part of our waking lives with them that we leave no room for meeting in 'real life'.
Never mind virtual reality 'games' and such - I am off to meet living people! To the office where I meet the team I work with, then out for a meal with the family this evening.

family is important

I have not spent much time on my computer recently. Illness in the family has meant I have been more occupied with 'housework' - cooking, cleaning, shopping - and walking the dog.

But that does not mean that I have given up on the computer. Perseverance is a quality that we should all develop, along with kindness and compassion. And what better place to develop these than in the place that matters most, our family.

In the Baha'i faith, the family is a very important aspect of society life and we should all do what we can to preserve and strengthen family life.