Thursday 26 February 2015

Portalegre to Castelo Branco . . .

A morning's tourism, a look round the cathedral, guided tour of the town museum (and the amazing picture of God plus Jesus and the Holy Spirit) . . .  trying to explain the mystery is crazy enough, to present God as an old white man with a beard, looking a bit fierce, counter productive, to say the least . . .

. . . a return to the Tapestry Museum, to share contact details with Helder . . . since the resonance was so strong when we first met . . . his phrase "in the third dimension" was the early verbal clue, since it implies the other dimensions not generally discussed in polite company, especially not between English tourists and Portuguese museum guides . . . the planned few minutes and photo turned into another long, rich exchange, despite my comments that he was supposed to be working (don't worry, my colleagues are very supportive) . . . so whether or not we are both equally deluded, it was wonderful to share some ideas about what's needed in the world . . . and for me to find a Portuguese person very keen on the ideas of A Place to Be . . . if a project is to develop here it has to have local involvement from the beginning . . . shared ownership, shared values and for this country with its beautiful but suffering soul, an opportunity to pioneer communities reconnecting with Nature . . . to transcend the contrived "crisis", which is creating so many problems, creating new versions of old verities . . . where growing, preparing and sharing food is a foundation stone . . . spiritual development without barriers of fixed beliefs . . . international cooperation enabling it . . .

And so to Castelo Branco, no longer in the Alentejo region . . . a modern city with no pull for me, except to change buses and head to Serta tomorrow and my next assignment, staying with a dear friend and taking care of her dogs while she goes off the England for a few weeks to earn the money to continue her relaxed life in the sun . . .

No comments:

Post a Comment