CANCELLED.
There is no Alternative Christmas Message this year due to UNforeseen circumstances. Dr Dim would like to apologise for all too human failings at this time. He wishes everybody a peaceful festive period and better insight into current predicaments in the New Year. Cheers.
It is a little early to be renouncing the year as having already passed perhaps but as the frantic Christmas clamour commences, evidently, round about then let's try to put time into a little perspective? A fascinating subject in itself time really is quite illusory. It is measured as if a quantity yet often we experience something quite different. That just about sums up human interpretations of the world around us. We often seem to say one thing yet see, feel and do another entirely different thing! Why is that - I hear that exceedingly attentive Dr Dim Student inquire at the back there? Well, you see it's all to do with that gap between our whole and the mysterious 'other' that we often call "reality". Whilst I do not necessarily agree that we inhabit an artificial creation of someone else's making it is really rather apparent that we often like to feel, au contraire, that we are the one's doing the creating ourselves. Its a very egocentric viewpoint that always puts us at the centre of our our own 'universe'. It worked (after a fashion) for some time now but much like Bagpuss that particular conception is seemingly now falling apart at the seams. That is, we are not Supreme Beings - as we are beginning to experience - and instead are simply visiting reality as if passing through a seaside holiday destination. Our time here, as a species, came and is more than likely going to one day pass. We have to ideally grab that particular bull by its horns and, frankly, deal with it. We can build bunkers, prep for every conceivable eventuality and construct advanced arguments that serve to propagate our own sense of worth and claim to immortality but, alas, it seems quite obvious that we will leave as we came. So, how do we deal with the very Achilles Heal of our existential dilemma? How, as a cogent whole populace can we begin to accept our own fate? Perhaps that is again where beliefs step up to the mark and crucially what Christmas SHOULD be all about. For some on this perilous planet Christmas is a time of remembrance, hope and joy. We would do well to try to adopt such a frame of mind as Hard Times encroach upon our well fortified senses of self belief. Frailty does not have to be a negative experience if we can learn to be more accepting. Whilst resilience is often at this time in our development touted as a primary quality to be upholding we could learn to be more forgiving to ourselves. Letting go is not easy when we invest so much time (and effort, etc) in our existence yet if we could release our delicate hold upon reality life could actually be so much more comfortable, rewarding and enjoyable. Merry Christmas.
Christmas is usually a time for forgiving. It is a time for spreading joy and merriment especially prominent in traditional Christian cultures. Of course, the central tenet that Christ was born at this time of year mainly falls by the wayside these days almost as if people do not have time to have a faith perhaps? Certainly, we are all rushing around like that proverbial headless chicken (or should that be turkey). At the moment we may feel as if we're all stuffed too. Times are definitely 'challenging'. But, haven't they always been? Humans have faced many challenges as we developed upon this globe. These do not need to be spelled out here. Suffice it to say that humanity has - to date - endured. We are quite a resilient species, after all. Perhaps that's why we are top of the food chain? So, whilst media portray numerous doomsday scenarios with which to peddle their particular wares please do remember that it's not over till the body mass to fat ratio of the disadvantaged (female?) citizen vocalises appropriate melodies. Hmm...
So, resilience is more than just finding the latest technology to solve whatever problem besets us at a particular point in time. Resilience, we may contend, is really about common values rising to the fore in hard times so that solidarity ensues and we work together in the face of adversity. There are detractors from this modus operandi - there always will be - those who perhaps feel that should humanity ultimately find commonality then their schism of especially hierarchical social control will become redundant. They would lose their 'power' and those common values would help work towards ensuring a more peaceful coexistence for all upon our increasingly fragile planet. This in turn would obviate the need for the miltary-industrial-pharmaceutical complex that currently dominates global economics. We would need another reason - such as happiness - to help orient our belief systems towards less 'productive' reasons for life and instead focus upon a more inward looking senses of worth.
Who knows that the next year will bring. That story has not yet been written. We can guess. We can cross palms with silver and read tea leaves. We'll most likely never entirely be sure about the future. However, the past is another story entirely. We are imbued with an intelligence as a species that allows us to learn by our mistakes. Its time to heed the warnings of the past here in the present and help each other aim for that future that we'd all like to share. We're getting old - humanity - but we need to ask if we are getting any wiser along with that?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
DD.