Happy St. Andrews Day!

I've been thinking about the space programs of different countries over the years, and especially about America's current program.

"We do not know where this journey will end," said Bush, "yet we know this: Human beings are headed into the cosmos." -gwb quoted on nasa website

So because we have explored space as much as we have, we have seen a whole extra stack of mind blowing WONDER, and we have realised more of how much more GLORY is in the universe that we havn't seen. Space, is a playground for the imagination, for scientists, filmscript writers, psychedelic voyagers, sci-fi geeks and trekkies, mystics, and children.
And perhaps space exploration has brought some excitement and sense of achievement into the tough/mundane lives of millions of people.

It is perhaps, one of the great 'achievements' of our generation, that we have sent people into space, and to the moon, if other civilisations are remembered for, pyramids, or a great wall, or hanging gardens, then maybe this is one of things we could be remembered for generations after our civilisation has crumbled away.

But at what cost? each of these achivements has required great sacrifice from a population, or a slave population.

Is it worth it though? To achieve something really lasting? (??)

I have been thinking about how if we keep the humanistic worldview that we are brainwashed with as we grow up, then space exploration really is perhaps the only hope for the future of humankind, and therefore worth every penny of the hundereds of billions of dollars that have been spent and are being spent on it.

I am really concerned that people seriously believe that the long term survival of the human race depends on their choosing to spend resources on space exploration, rather than on feeding those currently starving, or dying of preventable diseases. And I am concerned because some of these people seem to be in power or close to power.

I know everyone these days claims to understand that technology is not the answer to all our problems, and that science does not and cannot have all the answers.. but we need to put this into practice somehow, because these humanistic beliefs are still contributing to great suffering and death.

Because people need more than humanism,
Our most basic problems cannot be solved by human invention,
Hatred, bitterness, jealously, greed. We need more help with these ones.

What shall we teach our children?

It is amazing how much can happen and change in a week.

another cold Monday morning,
I'm gonna go walk around..

so I am sat in the middle of the MESS.

and there has been mess,

a smudgey mix of bacon rolls, airbourne paint, glowing paper and broken windows; clay, candles, people, plants, and animals, mentions, shadows, and spat water, blurry eyes, chocolate wrappers, and a cranked up sound system.

And this is a part of our mess, the mess of our lives, and of our city.

See this God. See it.

"The aim of life is to live,
and to live means to be aware,
joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware."
-henry miller

Met some really nice people from Slovakia and Austria, total strangers, gave me tea in their flat.

Remembering when I was lost in the maze of razor sharp rocks with the snow and vultures.

Spent a lot of today reading the Rule of St Benedict on the number 8 bus.

blue sky and sunshine,
perfect for trying to fix databases.

interested to have picked up some rumours of 'critiques' of urban monks.

apparantly urban monks are people who never do anything but clothe it all in interesting sounding language to justify themselves.

maybe?
'urban monks' have perhaps no standardisation.. but I for one, would say that I believe in working hard but not too hard. Some of the things I would value are not traditionally respected by society as worthy of a wage. But I believe in working to earn my food, and definitly in working to make a contribution to society.
And as for language, it's all exploratory, trying to find the good elements in the theme; the 'monk language' is not the point, I just think it's got valuable stuff buried in it somewhere, that I'm trying to discover.

But if I've missed the really cutting bit of this critique or if anyone has any better ones, critiques are always welcome (so long as your underlying motive is to look for the good in the world).
Comments/Complaints/Suggestions box.

what is an urban monk anyway?

it's like 49 degrees C in this computer lab, but no one else has noticed.
I'm off.

Plunging through a forest of wings.
Every breath of air, every shadow, every muscle,
the glass, the blood, the apparitions;
All saturated deep in the ground water of noise,
suspended, enveloped and permeated,
by the volumes of bass and lead.
The old bricks of the arch, reverberating with remembrance.
Bruises and stage dives,
kicked in the head and flung to the wall.
Temperatures soaring and sweat pouring.
Mashed in the human melee.
Fears exposed by their masks.
Death overwhelmed by life's fragility.
Buried in the depths of the underworld.

Colds and rain.

our bus wing mirrors got smashed off.

and there's piss on our door.