People……..‘The Hobbit’……From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…..
by Bernie Bell - 08:58 on 22 September 2025
People….
I never liked Edwina Currie.
Recently, I watched an episode of ‘Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House’ in which Edwina Currie sold some of her possessions to help to fund British Paramedics working in the Ukraine. And…she had a Ukrainian Refugee family – mother and two children – living with her.
I now think better of Edwina Currie.
An interesting twist to the sale, was that Edwina included a wooden cup from the hospital which Florence Nightingale worked in during the Crimean War.
The Crimea is now part of the Ukraine, which is occupied by Russia.
Florence Nightingale – British Paramedics – people with the same intention – to help people.
***************************************************************************
‘The Hobbit’……
I read in The Orkney News that the 21st of September is the anniversary of the publication of ‘The Hobbit’ by JRR Tolkien..….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/09/21/the-hobbit-onthisday/
This reminded me of a piece I wrote about how reading ‘The Hobbit’ and the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy helps to settle me when I’m troubled.
I looked up the piece, and feel that it fits with the times we’re living through now, not just for me personally but for the world….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/11/29/something-settling/
***************************************************************************
From ‘Emergence’ Magazine……
by Maya Pace
“I fell back in love with California when her paradise burned. She was no longer some picturesque lover. She never had been.”
In California, paradise has long been attainable—or so this idea has been sold to countless settlers since the Gold Rush. Where the land is too dry, water is siphoned from resource-rich places in the north to create endless farmland, green lawns, swimming pools, and thriving urban communities. Where there once was fire, it is suppressed, preserving forests where we enjoy beauty and recreation. But when we ignore the reality of the land we inhabit, treating the laws of nature as technical problems to be solved, we turn our backs on living in real relationship with the places that hold us.
After the destructive fires of 2020, writer and facilitator Maya Pace awakens to how California’s essential dry, scorched nature has been repressed to realize a vision of economic and social prosperity across the state. She connects with communities living in landscapes removed from our ideals of paradise, asking: What does it mean to live fully in the reality of a place, rather than how we wish it to be? What if our relationship with the land grew not from a practice of control, but from surrender? Witnessing the fragmenting facade of comfort and ease in California, Maya feels into a different kind of intimacy rooted in the wholeness of the land.”
https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/Thin-White-Line/
*********
I’m reminded of Woody Guthrie’s song…
https://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Do_Re_Mi.htm
Add your comment
