Sunday 25th February

It's Sunday, it's early and Lucy snores gently behind me. What to talk about?  Well I shall begin with the fact that our church warden, who will soon depart, has actually accepted the fact that the church should have water and a loo laid on for non church events.  It would open the church to other activities - watch this space.

Watching a sparrow hawk on the roof of the church the last couple of days, he awkwardly lollops up and down to get a drink of water from the drainpipe. Someone said they had gold crest in their garden, so I hope said small bird doesn't become a victim of our savage little killer, there is already a dead pigeon under the yew tree.

Rachel and John have been 'tidying' the copse at the back to make it into a nature reserve, though probably it already is ;)  So village life potters on quietly, next week there is the 'carvery', a good 40 people will attend at the pub next door, and hopefully there won't be a quiz.  We went to the pub yesterday afternoon and met someone who worked in the pub in Hutton-le-Hole, she had the same aversion to whitebait as I had - the eyes, the eyes!  They made a great fuss of Lucy, Paul calls her an old tart, the way she makes up to people.

Now to things that have caught my attention, the case of Frome in Somerset;

"Compassion is the best medicine" (Resurgence article) It seems that in the small Somerset town of Frome, the local doctor has been a driving force in getting people to be part of the wider community and what happens? well people become less sick, they don't litter the waiting room with non-event illness and the local hospital has a reduction in admissions. 

Perhaps a third of the people currently in hospital are there not because they need more or better medication but because they are isolated individuals.

Three years ago two people with the support of the town council brought together a scheme, by interlinking the health centre, the community hospital and social services with care provision available from local charities (here I quote) and then recruiting a number of volunteers, they have been able to set up a service directory of things happening in the town, talking cafes for instance.  So that people can get out, meet others and participate in the wider world.

So when we talk about the fragmentation of our society today it is because we are less community aware.  Other towns are taking different options, the town where my daughter lives, Todmorden has chosen a somewhat different path, here they grow food in public places and the community get together in growing things, nurseries and festivals and meals, hosting people from other countries to see what they have done.

There is Totnes in Devon which has become a Transition Town a permaculture idea where self-sufficiency within the town is important.  This option is taken in case of catastrophe in the wider world but whatever the motivation it makes the community stronger.  Read about Totnes and you will find the term 'new age' substantial community resides there, and I think Todmorden could be the same, as my daughter says, it is people (baby boomers?) like you mum who start these places...

Well to the last subject this is Jan Morris, whose marvellous book The Matter of Wales is a favourite.  She has written many books on her travels and now is growing old, but last week she was on the radio selling her latest and sounding very dismal about the STATE OF THE COUNTRY, aren't we all?  But we are not going there at the moment!  She had a 'guest' appearance in the Newsstatesman this Friday in the 'The Diary'.  Mostly she talked about the Japanese warship Yamato, which was sunk by the Americans in a suicide mission by the Japanese.  And it is well to contrast the front covers of this book in light of the terrible murdering spree of the youngsters at the school.  

The American version features a vast, black murderous explosion, whereas the English front cover features the 'great ship at peace against a background Japanese Cherry blossoms'.

Perhaps what she says at the end covers the state of the world at the moment, though we may be grateful for a cease fire and humanitarian aid that has been arrived at in the UN overnight for Goulta in Syria and lets hope it works, this is what she says...

Perhaps the saddest thing about the wretched state of the world, to my mind, is it lack of certainities.  So many convictions have lost their sureness, from patriotisms to ideologies to religions, and I get the feeling that people everywhere are looking for a route to some better defined objective - a Way, in short, to a Destination, both with capital letters.

She finishes......

In short, dear muddled fellow humans, I suggest to you that kindness is not only the Way, it is the Destination itself.

George Monbiot