Re: Are there any British out there?
- From: "creativeaccents" <creative-expression@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 7 Sep 2006 04:15:53 -0700
Christopher,
I thoroughly enjoyed your posts and the links. In fact, your incredible
writing style, your story re George and the gardening crew and the
other links all perfectly mirrored so much of what I have defined as a
key component of the central thesis of Millenia3 and been working at
addressing in my own blog at http://millenia3dotnet.blogspot.com/ and
in my MIllenia3 site at http://www.millenia3.net/ .
Perhaps at 56 I am wanting to reclaim some of the good times, the
quality times, and the value to be realized in just being, maybe the
proverbial peace through non-doing. Fortunately, though I now live in
the Atlanta area, I can recall simpler times when there was value in
simply sitting on a front porch enjoying the communion of being with
others, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends just talking and sharing
together.
I know George quite well. His observations were so similar to similar
proclamations I used to hear like "hit's a setting hen", which, when
deciphered means it looks like rain is coming in or countles others,
though with a Georgia or Carolina accent.
I truly believe that it was in going back to the small villages around
England that a sense of ennui set in as I realized how much we are in
danger of losing, especially as I watch the young today, so often up to
the rear in debt trying to achieve and acquire more for the sake of
more. This was recently so perfectly shown to me during a recent visit
to a starbucks where it was a standing room only crowd, most apparently
very busy, with loud music in the background and the electronic sounds
of laptop computers, mobile phones and pagers going off every few
moments. This served as even more of a flashback to a moment in a small
tea room just outside the walls of a huge castle where all was silent,
there were no televisions or stereos and all inside were quietly
enjoying tea and incredible pastries...and talking. I was probably the
only "outsider" there, but I too was included within the community as
we sat for over an hour just talking.
Unfortunately, even in England I saw the impact of considerable change
as the villages were expreience the ingress of the plastic franchises
that have now made most American cities indistinguishable from one
another. An even more recent special on PBS detailing life in Tokyo,
reminded me of the Psychology experiments I saw in the sixties of the
impact upon a cage of mice as the population inside was consistently
expanded and things grew frantic to the point that the social order
inside disappeared and all moved at a manic pace. Tokyo, is obviously
no different than many other major cities, but the point is simply that
the rushing, the noise, the need for more stuff for the sake of stuff,
especially on a world order basis has some inevitable consequences both
upon the individual and social order....something like a mass
neurosis...and WE are the very ones promoting individual value as
indicated by humans becoming mere economic utils to produce and consume
MORE.
Tea, per se, will not change the world, but what "the Republic of Tea"
guys were trying to get acros so many years ago is ever more true
today. Tea Mind, the whole tea drinking and enjoyin ethos is more one
of enjoying, relaxing, even considering the cup, as in the Japanese tea
ceremony or the English enjoyment of tea and small tidbits wherein it
is the experience that is important. To me, the antithesis is the
pushing of some fast in, fast out, business and electronic driven mania
while inside, caffeine loading as a means of reclaiming the energy to
produce and consume.
Slowing down is something to be valued and just maybe the simple
preparation and enjoyment of a cup with friends can be a component of,
or even a facitator of that slowing down and reclaiming self and
community.
Christopher Richards wrote:
Don't forget Brooke Bond Red Label, or swinging by teamadness.com for that
matter.
http://www.slowdownnow.org/content/view/2/6/
.
- References:
- Are there any British out there?
- From: old west tea
- Re: Are there any British out there?
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- Re: Are there any British out there?
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- Are there any British out there?
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