The nature of time

Time, to me, is simply the rate of change of one thing or system of things relative to the rate of change of a reference set of things, that is it nothing else, it is not another 'dimension'. As individuals we slide through time, having no power whatsoever over time past or time future and constantly live through a fine plane of time present, but time present for us is not necessarily time present for the rest of the universe, now we get complicated so I will stop! [thank god! you may say!]

How to get through exams

Step one: Never take an exam for the benefit or esteem of any one except yourself. You should be taking exams so that you can progress in your metier or to make some money to be independent. Either way you do not have to please anyone except you. Never take exams to impress anyone except yourself.

Step two: Work hard to do as well as you are capable in a sensible and straightforward way. Ask your teachers if you do not understand something, if you do not understand their answers ask someone else, badger people so you understand the salient points and terminology of what you are studying. sometimes it is just a matter of learning the meanings of the terms and words used.

Step three: Try and understand the point of view and thoughts of the setters of the exams and the markers, what is in their minds, look at old exam papers, see if you can solve them, get into their mind sets and fashions.

Step four: Know your stuff! If you neither know it nor understand it then you deserve to fail! No worry! That's how it should be, it is no good getting promoted beyond your ability.

Step five: If you find it difficult to learn something one way try another. Brains vary as to how they understand things and remember them, some people remember best in an auditory way, others in a visual way and others in a practical way etc. The last group have to actually do things and experience them in order to learn. Some people find it easy to learn things by rote others find this impossible [Charles Darwin was one of these!]

Step six: Never blame yourself!!!!!! Blame your teachers, your parents, your grandparents, your fellow trouble making students leading you astray, the circumstances of your life making it difficult to study, the lack of praise you have received from whoever but never ever yourself. Blame the examiner, if appropriate, for setting the wrong paper or failing to see what an excellent candidate you really are [or were!], it is his job to discover you not to find fault. That is not a joke, I mean it. Blaming yourself just leads to a negative and pointless spiral of helplessness, no purpose is being served by being there.

SAMPLES OF ONE

'Experience is a very good school but the fees are too high'

Statisticians constantly remind us that samples of one are, for the purposes of evidence, valueless. Everyone knows that a single person tortured in some foul cellar is an abomination and a mark of guilt which should be felt by all humanity which means that cruelty may exist as statistical facts but also has an existence within the soul of God.
In spite of this everyone needs to show respect to the facts of statistics and to avoid giving their personal experiences a value that they do not possess. Human success frequently comes from ignoring personal experiences, accepting that they were 'one off' events and basing their activities and lives on longer term values from the wisdom of others. Books, [including novels] and learning from the experiences from others together with the broad fields of science, arts and philosophy will provide a better basis for a healthy life than introspectin gained from personal experiences.

MIZPI

This is a new word I have invented to represent the concept of the extent of things. The life and death of the universe,[and its rebirth], the extent of an individual's thoughts, beliefs or experiences of events, ideas, religions, philosophies; the extent of human suffering at the hands of other humans from the beginnings of time and so on. It is short for 'from minus infinity to zero to plus infinity'[and back again]
In the field of moral philosophy people, of all nations, have used the word 'God' [or synonyms in various languages] to represent infinite good. This word  remains useful as representing infinite [and virtual as regards actual human behaviour] goodness with regard to such things as altruism, virtue, honesty, kindness, loyalty etc. There are those who, being made anxious by human venality seek to overcome this problem by exterminating all religion.It is a naive and pointless activity. It would be more useful to ask all people of goodwill, of all religions,atheistic beliefs or invented charismatic ideas to unite towards humility towards their own beliefs and acceptance of the right to exist of those of others, except those beliefs which denies to others the freedom of belief.

Advice on presenting speeches

Public speaking is an important skill, it can be learned, not to become a famous orator but just to get your point across to an audience. Make a decision: ‘ I will learn to be a competent public speaker even though I can never become a very good one, I will practice and do my best to be competent.’ A lot of it you can practice on your own but you do need to do some practice with an audience.

Basis is simple, accept fear, be brave, determination overcomes fear, stand up straight, very upright, back very straight, face the audience, do not bend forward, if you are reading from a paper hold it high so you are still facing everyone, look at individuals in the audience near the back and speak to one individual at a time; speak VERY slowly, in short phrases with pauses after every phrase, they do not need to be full sentences.

You need to know how big the room is you are working to and get some one to stand that distance away and see if they can hear you. Open your mouth well as if you are singing, try not to let your voice get too shrill, just your natural timbre. Treat it as an opportunity to increase your self confidence not as some sort of threat. Even if you are giving your speech from memory still have it on paper in front of you, single lines to each phrase, double spacing. it should be written out as your thought processes go not in sentences. Try and make your voice rise and fall to give meaning to the words, as if it was poetry.

Speech making, panic attacks and over breathing

Having to give any sort of performance to a group of people can be threatening. It is a very variable thing depending on such things as basic genetic personality factors, acquired factors, such as damaged external appearance, being, for one reason or another outside your peer group [vide Albert Camus 'The Outsider’ or ‘L’Etranger’], carrying a history which you are conscious of but unsure how much others know or believe,and so on.

There are huge differences, one from another, in terms of how these things play out in practice. There are those who welcome public performance and only feel they come to life in these circumstances, the challenge and the performance they find thrilling and pleasurable, unfortunately some can find ordinary life a boring thing. Here we are interested in those who find public performance to be threatening to the point of pain.
Panic attacks and the problem of nervous over breathing are often treated as synonymous, it is not so in truth, ‘panic attacks’ is a general term indicating incapacitating disability relating to particular life demands, over breathing is one symptom of panic attacks which is common and disabling so we will deal with that.

Over breathing is an extension of the common reflex reaction to difficult circumstances; ‘the sigh’. We all sigh at times, it is natural. Over breathing or ‘air hunger’, is a situation where the person feels very short of breath and cannot ‘get enough air’ even though they have no disorder of the cardiorespiratory system or have exercised enough to explain the problem. It is often linked to ‘adrenaline rush’ situations which,biologically prepare the body for ‘fight or flight’.
A commonly suggested remedy is to breathe in and out of a brown paper bag applied to the mouth and nose. The idea behind this is carbon dioxide loss which can cause muscular twitching and spasms [‘tetany’] which can be disabling, this is a result of the over breathing but soon becomes a cause of further panic because of the symptoms caused. When I practiced as a GP I advised people to throw away their paper bag because this management, in the long term augments rather than solves the problem. the first step is to explain to the patient the underlying causation and physiology of the problem including the effects of CO2 loss from the bloodstream via the lungs, and next to explain a rational way out of the difficulty such that the patient is in control of their own difficulties. I never needed to refer on to specialists with this system. It is necessary to teach the patient systems of muscular and mind relaxation which they can put into operation immediately, controlling their rate of breathing whilst realising that this was a stress reaction and not a physical illness.

Once over breathing as a problem is under control then one can turn to things that cause panic; there are two basic approaches, either can be valid depending on cicumstances. the first is to avoid the threatening situations, we all do this, often unconsciously,and there is nothing wrong with it if it does not disrupt normal life. If this is not practicable or unwanted then the next approach can be understood by the phrase ‘gradual familiarisation’, this can be done by oneself or with the aid of a psychologist or some other trained person. It entails doing the thing that is threatening in a very graduated manner with’ if necessary very tiny moves forward but for this to work it must be applied on a daily basis; give a speech on your own, give one to one trusted friend, two trusted friends etc etc until, like Winston Churchill you come down the steps of some important building in Washington after talks with president Truman just after the end of WWll and address the waiting world press with the following words: ‘I wonder if you could spare a few moments of your valuable time to hear about the results of the discussions between myself and President Truman?’ It turned out that ’Yes’, the pressmen could spare a few moments of their valuable time for that purpose. Speech making is to some extent a gift but the more one shows warmth and concern for others then the easier it is.

Music to work to

These are a few ideas for finding good music to work to from a personal point of view, the list will show my age and perhaps my personality. The sort of work you are doing alters the best music that will suit as an accompaniment to life. When I am reading in order to study or memorise I need a quiet, complex style, I find this actively helps me to concentrate and remember; to learn and understand it is essential to relax, giving a state of mindful alertness not troubled by extraneous, irrelevant thoughts. This state of being relaxed, untroubled but giving full concentration is necessary in a lot of sports and careers as well, it is not always easy to conjure up, particularly when motivation is either too high or too low or distractions too dominant. Music can tell you how to do it. I like various musicians in all genres from pop, rock and roll to jazz and classical, but not all at the same time! Considering quiet concentration then I find classical chamber music, solo pieces or quiet reflective jazz suits me best. I will start with some jazz suggestions; Just a list of names,[it all depends on what is available so I do not want to go into much detail about individual pieces or records, just try them and see]; Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, Claude Hopkins, Buddy Tate, Joe Thomas[these last three on a wonderful old vinyl called ‘Let’s Jam’] Errol Garner, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Parker, Tubby Hayes.........; there are lots of contemporary jazz musicians to explore as well. Coming to Classical music there is one, must have, record as a starter to a contemplative collection, this is J.S. Bach’s solo cello suites, all the top cellists get this on record so get yourself more than one, they are all a little different. To my mind Bach’s solo and chamber music often has the natural beauty of mathematics and the nature of the universe within its patterns of sound. I particularly recommend solo piano music as brain food, in forms such as the sonata; Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin alone provide a wealth of study. Chopin called his solo pieces by various names, having meaning to experts, such as Etudes, Nocturnes etc, I have yet to discover any thing he composed which was not beautiful and lucid. I can still remember first listening to the late Beethoven string quartets and his late piano sonatas when I was studying medecine at he age of nineteen. There are very many string quartets, sometimes with inclusion of piano, clarinet etc as a quintet, lots of them feed the brain and set it moving in the right direction. Another genre to try is church music, English composers such as; Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Henry Purcell and Vaughan Williams all have wonderful contemplative music to their names. If something with a little more force is needed then try concertos,[piano, violin, clarinet et]c by all the great composers.

“Proposition: ‘There is nothing in the universe which does not, directly or indirectly, interact with all other things in the universe’ “

Grannie's Shin of Beef Casserole

Ingredients:
Two red or white onions diced
Half pint Guiness ale, half a pint of water
2 lbs [1 kilo] shin beef
Herbs; thyme sprigs, parsley, 2 bay leaves,
Teasp. English mustard,; tablesp. Tomatoe puree; shake of salt and pepper; Tablesp honey

1. Cut beef into bite sized cubes
2. Marinade the beef in a cool place overnight in; the beer, 3 or more cloves of garlic [crushed] and a couple of sprigs of thyme.
3. Next day strain and dry the meat on kitchen paper roll. [put marinade mixture on one side]
4. Fry the cubes of meat with some oil [suggest olive oil, butter mix] until sealed, then add the marinade mixture to the frying pan to heat together with the meat, also add 400 ml of dissolved stock cube[beef]
5. Put this in a slow cooker. Ensure the meat is covered with liquid; if necessary add a little water.
6. Adjust the cooker to ‘high’ for about 30mins then ‘low’ for about 6 to 8hrs.
7. Drain the meat from the gravy
8. Mix 1 to 2 tablesps cornflower with the same volume of cold water, add to the boiling hot gravy
9. Season the gravy with some Worcester sauce and mustard to taste, add the honey and tomato puree whilst hot, pour the gravy over the meat into a hot casserole dish, ready to serve.
[serve with mashed potato and vegetables of choice]
[this is Grannie's tried and tested own recipe]

‘Walking with God’

Almost everyone wants to be righteous, to do the right thing, and they also find the self-righteous to be a pain in the neck. Almost everyone desires to be protected from evil but find very disturbed paths to this purpose.
This god who walks by our side does not need to possess a real or physical existence, a virtual, or imaginary existence will provide the purpose.
Children imbue their teddy bears with powers of comfort and friendship, paediatric nurses and doctors know the importance of these to children under stress. Adults too need imaginary ‘beings’ and heroes as in plays, books, song and music etc. They may make fun of children’s teddy bears yet they are unconscious that they too have their own ‘teddy bears’, they are simply more sophisticated according to education and intelligence. Sometimes a picture or a letter can summon up the comforting images of home and love. It takes imagination to realise that imaginary or virtual images, thoughts and emotions are as real as the rocks on the hill, because you cannot touch them does not mean they have no real existence.
Naturally mental illness can cause images and ideas that are ridiculous and dangerous but they are very real to the patient, because some imaginary ideas and thoughts are wrong or put to very evil purpose indeed does not mean that good ideas, thoughts an images should be expunged. This would leave cruelty to work unchallenged.
It is a strange paradox that those who are in most need of walking with god in a spirit of humility are those absolutists who behave as if they already possess the word of god.
The words of the old ‘gospel’ hymn: ‘ Just a closer walk with thee’ [you can listen to it free on the internet] say it all, echoed in the refrain in the Beatles song;
Let it Be.

All We are Is Work in Progress

All things, people, plants, other animals, all inanimate things do not exist in the past or the future but solely in a moving fragment of time which we call ‘the present’. The set of beliefs, convictions, knowledge, superstitions, behaviour patterns, physical attributes and history which is our individual identity is a shifting and moving thing. We change our beliefs over time according to new knowledge and experiences, this is healthy and normal but we cannot predict at any one time how our beliefs will change in the future. A paradox occurs here; the less a particularly strong belief is related to evidence then the easier it is to make it an ‘article of faith’ and a dangerous loss to our identity if we abandon it particularly if our habits,customs, social life and welfare are engaged in its continuance. A cursory look at the history of authoritarian regimes of government shows how harmful this can be.

This is true for personal and family relationships as well as those of governments of nations and empires. There is only one general answer which is to accept that all of our ideas, beliefs and habits have value in as much as they allow constant adaption for the better.

Coq au vin

the equivalent in chicken pieces of one large bird diced into chunks
2 tablesp of flour
Salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
90g butter
100g [or a bit more] best bacon chopped into gougons
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot diced
4 tablesp brandy
600ml good red cooking wine (We used Wollemi shiraz-cabernet sauvignon in ours, plenty of other grapes would do; grenache-shiraz, pinot noir, etc.)
Garlic cloves, crushed, to taste, we used 4 large cloves
large sprig of thyme and two bay leaves[tied together as a bouquet garni, to be fished out at end of cooking]
bunch of fresh parsley and coriander leaves roughly chopped (I snip them into the pot with scissors)
1 or 2 lumps of sugar
2 tablesp of good olive oil, or more if necessary
8 small shallotts peeled (or fewer large ones)
1 teasp wine vinegar
225 g mushrooms (we used shitake type)

1. Coat the chicken pieces with the flour with plenty of salt and pepper
2. Melt 25g of butter in the casserole dish [pyrex] add the bacon, onion and carrot and fry gently until bacon starts to turn colour
3. Add the chicken pieces and fry hot until they are golden brown all over
4. Pour warm brandy over the chicken and set light to it under a lower heat then pour in the wine and stir.
5. Add the sugar lumps, bouquet garni and garlic, bring to the boil then cover and simmer very gently until the chicken is tender.
6. Meanwhile melt 25g of butter in a frying pan with half a tablesp of oil
7. Add the shallots and fry till just brown, add pinch of sugar, vinegar with a tablsp or so of chicken stock, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or so, then keep warm.
8. Melt 25g of butter into a heavy saucepan with a little oil and add the lightly chopped onions, cook until brown but do not burn.
9. Add all ingredients to the saucepan and simmer until the chicken is well done and tender (about 1 and 1/2 hrs at slow simmer)
Serve with new potatoes or roast potatoes and vegetables to taste.

Drugs

As I got older as a GP I found more and more young people were suffering problems caused by taking drugs [illicit ones I mean, often obtainable at school] All the different drugs that young people take are different from each other with different side effects and consequences. Kids who take drugs visit their doctor much more often than kids who don’t take drugs but often the actual complaint from the kid would apparently be nothing to do with drugs, perhaps they did not feel very well. Often they looked upon their drug taking as normal and fairly harmless even though the grades they were getting at school would be sliding down the scale and their parents were becoming very worried for them.

It was difficult to give the kid a good reason to give up the habit that they recognised as valid. Telling them that the habit would shorten their life, make them fail their exams and mess up their brains and relationships did not seem to cut much ice. Many drugs are demotivating and very harmful to fulfil ambition or potential. [Not true for nicotine or caffeine but nicotine has a host of harmful effects, caffeine less so, fortunately for us coffee drinkers]
One idea that did seem to wake them up a bit, and not used at drug clinics was this; “Sooner or later you will be in work and be responsible for others, like I am in work at this minute. How would you feel if I stared at you with glazed eyes and just suggested that you should chill out and don’t worry, taking no notice of what you said or what you were worried about?
If you work hard, for years, to get a skill so you can earn your own living it gives you a feeling of satisfaction. What if you can get that same degree of satisfaction from taking a ‘recreational’ drug? Where will that leave you, where will it leave society? Have a nice day!"

Wisdom

“When I think of all the crap I learnt at High School, it’s a wonder that I can think at all.” Paul Simon song.

I am an admirer of Paul Simon, his music, lyrics and style. The quote, to me, reverberates with interesting complexities, many of them contradictory.

It echoes feelings of adolescent intellectual rebelliousness. Of course, Paul Simon is very clever. There are elements of both wisdom and foolishness in the possible meanings and thoughts which can stem from the line. There are resonances of J.D. Salinger’s ‘Catcher in the Rye’; I am sure that Paul Simon is a J. D. Salinger fan.

I think I was born with very high levels of intellectual rebelliousness myself, it can lead you into trouble and out of trouble, it takes wisdom to control it but wisdom is in short supply and difficult to find. Or is it? In King John, one of Shakespeare’s characters says, “Wisdom cries out in the streets, but no one listens”. It is a very profound statement, wisdom is easy to find; all you have to do is close your eyes, relax, and ask yourself what a wise person would suggest you should do. Notice that I say ‘what a wise person would advise you to do’, not what the wise person would necessarily do, because wise people are much better at being wise for others than they are at being wise for themselves.

Wisdom requires quite a lot of knowledge as well as good systems of thought and, very sadly much of what people think they know, and firmly believe, really is total crap. Ignoring what you learn from High School will not help at all. Treating everything you think you know with healthy scepticism helps a lot but it cannot be the complete answer. We have to make decisions, sometimes we have to make them very quickly indeed, and sometimes the very worst decision is to make no decision at all but just keep threshing the possibilities over and over again in the mind. It may be here that what you learnt from High School can save your life, or even more importantly, somebody else’s life. (There is a song, which I like, and fits me; ‘Somebody saved my life today’, for me that person is Fay, my wife, now you see why I love, admire and care for her so much.)

Words and Meanings

Alice in Wonderland said that words mean ‘whatever I want them to mean’. Lewis Carroll was a mathematician so he knew how much truth may lie in the absurd.

Many disputes, from personal to international are not founded on true realities but more on the different meanings ascribed to words. People are murdered because they will not give loyalty to a particular group of words.

Who owns the meanings of words? The compilers of dictionaries perhaps, but they base their conclusions on nothing more weighty than common usage.

Words and their meanings change with time, they are truly democratic, belonging to the people. Efforts by authoritarian groups and individuals to ‘own’ or control the meanings of words always fail in the end. The very ambiguity of words is also a strength a necessity and a thing of beauty, they are alive just as we are alive and evolve as we evolve.

An interesting word is ‘GOD’; There are those who define this word in ancient and simplistic ways and then write books to prove that the poor fellow does not exist. For the average educated person anthropomorphic gods are, philosophically speaking, ‘dead in the water’ anyway, so proving that an elderly gentleman is no longer sitting in the sky organising every atom in the universe does not really deserve books and fame. Wholly abstract, virtual or spiritual definitions or understandings suffice without recourse to possibilities which deny reason.
The only thing that needs to be abandoned is the use of intimidation, violence or cruelty to prove that a given definition is true, the validity of any idea is inversely proportional to the intimidation necessary to support its existence.

Grandad's quote of the week

It is by your deeds and not your thoughts that you shall be judged

Grandad's quote of the week

'The veracity of any belief is inversely proportional to the degree of violence people are willing to inflict on others to support that belief’