Our NHS

Apologies to any readers from outside the DUK. though the reputation of this NHS concept is widespread ... the envy of countries all round the world ... if countries, as concepts, can experience envy... or just to acknowledge the sincerely held belief of some folks that the world is not round at all, but flat ... certainly I can live my daily life quite happily as if it were flat ... and even more amazed at how the Sun sets at one edge and pops up later at the other ... on the Ways I am often amazed watching Sunrise and Sunset ... better than the telly even ... to be honest I, like most people at this historical time in this geographical place, believe the Earth is round(ish) ... science says so, astronauts observed it and so knowledge grows ... not so long ago, scientists risked their lives from a powerful church, or to be more accurate, powerful humans with their own agendas, to spread the round earth theory ... these days some scientists risk their reputations proposing theories outside the mainstream ... which does not make their theories right, or wrong ...

Anyway, Science is a sacred cow for another day ... focusing on one topic at a time is very challenging ... maybe through slackness, maybe because everything is interconnected. .. as seen through revelation, not any scientific endeavour.

Briefly, because time is short, OUR NHS was launched in 1948, as part of a Welfare State, a compassionate concept after the horrors of WW2 ... the voters had turned their back on the old warrior, Churchill, and elected a radical Labour government. Sceptics might say that the NHS, plus sick pay, retirement pensions and so on would be helpful for healthier soldiers if things kicked off again ... and that the nationalisation of utilities recapitalised the essential industries to support private enterprise ... there's the Marxist bias again ... notwithstanding, the radical reforms, to be paid from taxes and National Insurance, were pretty much considered a good thing. The medical establishment put up stern resistance to OUR NHS, but Nye Bevan "stuffed their mouths with gold" to persuade them. Later they developed ways to butter their bread on both sides. And, of course, many medical staff at all levels loved the concept and still do.

Political parties too. Politicians are not the most admired of us. Easy targets.

For a while OUR NHS was untouchable. The NHS changed and grew. And grew and grew.
Our clever medics found more and more ways to prolong and enhance our lives. Dodgy heart? Have another one! Dodgy joints? Routine. Symptoms of disease? We have a drug for that. Side effects from the drug? We have a drug for that too. Mum had a cocktail of around eight tablets in her last few years. .. maybe more. That's normal. Mostly treating symptoms.

The edifice tottered as corrupting drug corporations took over. Do your own research.

The beloved family doctor, or GP was and is the cornerstone of each community. All services free at the point of use. Most GPs don't work directly for the NHS, but in a Partnership. And there are four NHS organisations, one in each nation of the DUK. Still, Science progressed, and amazing new drugs were discovered and patented. New expensive kit become essential. Brain scanners.
Targets were set to address health inequalities. Amazingly, after much research, it was discovered that health inequalities were very strongly linked to social inequalities. Who would have thought it?
Targets were set. Longevity grew all round for a while, then recently dropped. Though not to narrow the social or health inequalities. On the contrary.

However, what does seem clear is that at some point the grey area between life and death was even further blurred, and much effort in health and social care went into prolonging death. Not through any evil intent ... I am not looking for conspiracies. .. but as a result, perhaps of the hypocritical oath itself, plus blame culture ...

Meanwhile, the complex organism which is a human evolves from rural to urban quite quickly, the environment fills with toxins from many sources, diets also ...the incredible immune system struggles to adapt to new challenges. .. sometimes it takes a while to deal with threats to the integrity of the organism ... it thrives on a relaxed mind, an optimal diet, fresh air and exercise and, as folk wisdom knows ... dirt ... it's exercise for the immune system.

So the suicidal attack on our defences through stress, junk foods, lack of life giving Sun energy and vitamin D, and antiseptic houses weakens us ... while well meaning early interventions to suppress symptoms in the allopathic orthodoxy mandated in OUR NHS leaves the immune system thinking it's no longer needed ...

There is certainly lots of money to be made out of the whole thing, but it's not necessarily a conspiracy ... in the end we may take responsibility for our own health ... with all the help from brilliant doctors and nurses, working with the wonderful personal physician, which is the immune system.

That's a long post for W&D, but a very short one for the topic.

And a very personal exploration of the question can wait for next time. ..maybe today, maybe tomorrow. .. but rest assured, all is well, whatever happens.

The thick plotens ...

Well, that's Easter over ... the brave leader of the DUK, having endured the suffering of a trip to our marvellous NHS, miraculously rose from the dead in perfect timing on Sunday. Some people seem to believe it, such is the depth of the delusion delivered daily with the drip drip of endlessly repeated content free phrases.

Or maybe I am the deluded one and indoors really is the safest place and going out is dangerous, not just for the reckless escapees, but also for those loyally complying with the law, not just in the spirit, but the letter, as overheard from the rather sinister acting PM, D.Raab. The story is tightly told to trap us into easy acceptance of the loss of freedom unimaginable a month ago. Worse still, the prisoners demand tighter restrictions, such is the fear. It's a Brave New World indeed.

Younger sister writes with Easter greetings and offers new facts to clean up our shared story ... Mum was not one of 12, as guessed by the slack writer, but 8. Still a lot, but a 25% error is lotter. .. trying that new word out and looking forward to hearing whether it works for you dear reader.
Dad, meanwhile, told Judith how he came to join the Army Medical Corps ... maybe not avoiding killing so much as being killed. If he had been you wouldn't be reading this story, imagine that!

Time to shoot some sacred cows ...

Readers may have observed a political back story from the left ... think Saint Jeremy and keep going ... to be honest I still struggle to listen to Tories dispassionately, let alone compassionately. My FB friends are consciously recruited for diversity. People's strongly held opinions are worth observing ... without judgement, though not without discernment. One of the crew was extremely vegan, disparaging corpse munchers scornfully. Let's call him Tony. Recently he was reborn as a carnivore and strongly critical of veganism. A man with strongly held opinions. Possibly anger issues. Others are passionate fans of Trump. Not all rednecks. Some cite their hero, the previous president. In fact he has a whole story wrapped in his name - Obamacare. .. clever and, like Trump's catchphrase, Make America Great Again, mostly content-free ... Stay Indoors, Stay Safe is a current version, sometimes abbreviated to Stay Safe ... since this particular phrase is leading to such danger it has to be challenged ... which triggers many who have swallowed the soma pill ... my current plot to subvert it is to use the same tactics and sign off FB posts with "Be Kind" ... perhaps it will go viral and reprogramme millions so they be subtly led into kinder delusions ... like Buddhism or similar sloppy stories of peace and love ...

A similar sideshow plays out in DUK ... picking up ongoing virus stories, processing them though familiar filters, arguing about which side has the best policy in a limited view of the international battle against the deadly virus ...which turns out to be not entirely international, maybe not best dealt with as a battle, not deadly to healthy people unless exposed to a massive dose, not universally accepted as a virus by well qualified scientists in the field ... crikey! Shut up and watch the news, people are dying in droves and I am terrified ...

Meanwhile, Obama is named for a more compassionate healthcare system, and over two terms approved ongoing wars designed to destabilise the renegade oil rich nations. Trump appeared to withdraw troops, whilst pursuing other means of securing freedom for the people of Iraq, Libya, Syria ... Trump's instinct appears to have been to let the Covid19 virus run its course. .. Johnson also ... we will never know how that would have gone, and spurious modelling is guesswork. Sweden provides a helpful alternative.

Perhaps the biggest Sacred Cow in DUK is the NHS. .. three letters pointing to a huge, complex, bundle or organisations. . that's for another day.

Back to the personal,  not because the returning ego needs the attention, so much as in some ways personal experience is the closest we get to truth ... and even that needs watching carefully.
This crisis is really energising me. The unbelievable, rapid slip into martial law is astonishing. And ordinary folks are demanding more restrictions. The consequences for the elderly and vulnerable are drastic ... and I am not talking about death. That's coming sooner rather than later from something or other. Dying is a serious business, best done peacefully and with loved ones around. The cruel measures imposed claim to protect them, but don't. This is not strict quarantine.
I am not seeking martyrdom and anyway they are not threatening to shoot resisters ... yet. But there is no fear in discreetly working round the blocks to compassionate action. Neither from a virus, police or the willing informers stepping up to risk their reputations ...

The organism is in fine form, immune system boosted by plenty of exercise, fresh air and sunshine.
Between us (and Google) dear reader, I can report a strange effect in the brain the other day. Speaking became disrupted between brain and mouth ... momentarily, then completely jumbled. There was no pain, just close observation. It settled down. There has been much speaking and listening since social gathering was banned. Deep conversations on the fells with all sorts of people. Neighbours in their gardens. Trying to understand what's going on ... and to undermine the self-imposed attack on our freedoms. .. There are others seeing through the hallucination and the rural setting is much more relaxed for resistance ...  but some previously hospitable people are cheerleading for the prevention of city dwellers from seeking respite in "our" countryside. Even folks who own mobile homes, who have been visiting each season for years, drunk in the pubs, socialised with locals ... what are we becoming?

That's enough for now. The Sun is shining and free vitamin D is out there. Please rest assured dear reader, that the psych seems sufficiently stable, if unusually engaged with the other humans. If you have been offended by any of this, stand by or stop looking. .. there is more to come. ..

Mum

Excuse me if I slip into first person language dear reader ... loyal readers of this six year ramble may have noticed a gradual slipping away of I, me, my and mine ... then it became a practice to try to write elegantly without those traps, not for your sake, it was never written for you, but as part of the quest to find peace from the chattering me mind ... like a writing meditation ... to go along with the daily walking meditation ... it helped ...

As it happens, the ego self has returned recently, consciously ... you may have noticed that a crisis has occurred across much of the world ... your blogger, comfortably hibernating in this little cottage in the hills, was already preparing a Spring Camino ... having become attached to the simplicity of the regime ... then Brittany Ferries wrote to tell me the crossing was cancelled ... not postponed as sometimes happens in rough weather, but cancelled ... the refund was smoothly handled ... the train trip took a little longer, but that was refunded too ... in fact, dear reader, the UK government told me I couldn't go anywhere (with exceptions) ... the long resisted safe house suddenly became a boon, rather than the burden felt when the precious few years of freedom were compromised by the arrival of money ... yes, dear sceptic, it was still my choice, and many people would be unambiguously delighted, but still ... I am trying not to take it personally ...

On a personal note, I have to tell you that my Mum sadly died.

Actually, I don't really understand why it is so many people die sadly. What is meant by that phrase? I only saw one person die in this whole life, and that was Mum. It was a very poignant experience and I was happy to be there at the end. She didn't seem sad. I wasn't sad. Elder sister you will have to ask, but it's possible she wasn't sad either.

A brief biography of Mum, from my perspective, may be helpful.
She was young once. The youngest of a large family, or maybe youngest girl, Uncle Phillip may have been the youngest. About 12 children I think. I lost count. .. some died as babies.
They lived in a quite small terrace house in Wilton, near Salisbury. I currently live in a quite small terrace house alone and the mind boggles how they all lived together there, but that's how it was and Mum never expressed any bitterness about such crowded conditions. Actually, I have no memory of her expressing anything but unconditional love. Lucky me! I thought it was normal.
She met Dad during the second World War .. she was in the Land Army, he in the Army Medical Corps. He never talked about his war. Maybe he was a little traumatised. Perhaps he joined the medics because he preferred not to kill people ... I don't know, he never said.
I still cannot imagine Mum having sex ... though I hasten to add I am not inferring four virgin births. Anyway, Linda was first out, soon followed by Frank. Frankly speaking, it is possible that Dad was disappointed the first time ... still they had the almost perfect pair and that was enough. Times were hard and Mum's experience probably taught her you could have too much of a good thing. Next out, accidentally, was me. Perhaps why I was a rebel, who knows.
Finally, Judith arrived, relieving me of the burden of being the baby.
Linda is alive in Dorset, in the family home.
Frank died, sadly, some years ago with a brain tumour in Australia. This was more than sad for those who knew him ... three small daughters, wife, friends, siblings. Perhaps saddest of all, both parents still living. Both getting towards their natural exit ... heart problems .. first major chance to go ... medics are very good at taking us past that, so we can have a go at cancer ... medics are quite good at taking us past that too ... hello Alzheimer's!
Dad sadly died of hospital acquired infection a while later. We didn't sue. It was past his time.
I sat in the hospital with Mum as Frank was nearing his early exit ... she was bargaining with her God. .. but he or she wasn't having it ... like many parents she would happily have swapped places ... but she carried on ... smiling with the pain of arthritis, a cocktail of drugs, a heart bypass she specifically declined but had anyway during an emergency. She didn't sue.
Judith is still living ... she's French now.

Well, there it is dear reader, she's dead now, happily. I am an orphan. That was tricky, having to take responsibility. Well more responsibility to be precise.

Of course, this was quite a few years ago now. I am entering the three score years and ten time and ready, willing and able to take my turn. The heart genes might do it, though there is no sign so far. Rest assured, dear reader(s), I have no attention of dying sadly. How you, the daughters, either remaining sister or anyone else respond is entirely up to you.

Maybe, when we cry at the funeral, we are crying for ourselves?

It was an early start, before dawn, writing this after cautiously sharing some FB posts, hoping to help folks lift the fear a little. Already one person has let me know I have offended him. The share was from a young, black, rock chick from Florida, who kindly let me be her FB friend so I could broaden my perspective. The images were questioning how shopping was allowed and wandering the wilderness not. Seemed a question worth examining. I made no comment, but my opinion was inferred anyway ... offence was taken though none was offered ... difficult times!

Time for a walk over the fells. Nature is bursting out exuberantly. Seasonal flu is relaxing with the Sun, exercise, fresh air. Those pesky bugs love the indoors. It's really not safe in there.

I wonder what Mum would have made of the madness. She did her best to protect us. Chucked us out after breakfast to wander in the woods, chucked us out after dinner (now called lunch) for more risky behaviour. We were lucky to live in the countryside, though a local friend raised in Sunderland reports the same approach. ..

More cause and effect ...

It's Good Friday in the parts of the world shaped by the Christian story...or stories, since the messenger's teachings inspired many variations of forms available to susceptible humans, whether to enlighten them or control them depends on perspective. It's the problem of all religions, organising the essence destroys the essence ... the Truth is not to be organised.

Today is a special day, set not by the calendar but through some lunar calculation (if you are interested do your own research, time is short, the blog wants writing and if evidence and research are often sketchy please check the veracity for yourself ... it's a teaching from the Buddha, K and others ... don't believe anything anyone tells you, check it for yourself, including the teacher)

Last year on this day, you may recall, the story was told in Santiago de Compostela, where they really go to town with imagery of death (for any new readers without conditioning in this religion Good Friday marks the day Jesus was ritually murdered in a gruesome way after being betrayed by one of his closest friends ... still unclear why that's Good but you can research that too if you are interested ... these days children mark the solemn event by eating chocolate eggs ... feel free to feedback how these long digressions in parentheses are working for you... it is difficult to keep up with the tumbling thoughts and writing clearly, albeit vaguely enough to allow weird stuff in, whilst watching out for apostrophe apostasy, sometimes by carelessness, often by autocorrect trying to be too helpful, also carelessness, since paranoia is not currently operating) and a strong emotion of foreboding was felt when, turning into a narrow street, a procession of death marchers, carrying an image of a suffering Christ, drumming darkly, passed by ...

To be honest this imagery of suffering ( for our sins, therefore our fault, there's your guilt) never appealed ... Buddha's image is very laid back and much more popular in garden centres than the Christian stuff ... I expect the usual critique is in back issues of the blog, it is rarely checked.

The esteemed (by around half of the electorate) President of the Land of the Free, confidently predicted this crisis would be over at Easter. Maybe Sunday. He is not universally popular around the world or indeed in the USA, yet a very plausible conspiracy theory, repeated by several FB informants carefully nurtured to retain for different perspectives, has him cast as an heroic leader of the world, taking down the rich and powerful ... which is well disguised, since he is very rich and powerful himself. If the theory is correct then we may see results as early as Sunday, or perhaps Bank Holiday Monday.

5G networks are widely touted as the cause of the crisis, experts debunk it ... maybe it's not the only cause. A magic pill, popular with drug dealers and extremely lucrative, is almost beyond question in the mainstream and virulently opposed by those suspicious of controllers ... as if the inordinate power of big pharma wasn't fact ... like big oil, it's the addiction to money that drives these corporations, liberated from regulatory restrictions previously in place to protect competition ...  and human expressions of these out of control organisations take on god like status. .. on another level out of control human organisms grow literally with obesity and cancer, less obviously seriously damaged minds manipulated by advertising, refined by Edward Bernays, psychologist nephew of Sigmund Freud, to persuade people to buy stuff they don't need, with money they don't have ...causal chains all over ...

Sun is up, enough writing for now ... may leave happy Easter greetings for another day ... doesn't seem very respectful. There are hot cross buns, so I can remember Christ's suffering when eating one later. No chocolate eggs though.

For friends fully signed up to the story, please don't take offence. I try to live my life according to the teachings he is said to have brought. Well, the ones that feel right to me, anyway. Blind Faith is not working here. Love one another will do for now.

Fencing

A brief break in the exploration of the nature of reality to offer a simple story ....

Once upon a time, there was a man who loved fences. He loved the way they enclosed territory, kept people safe, kept other animals in ... he had a favourite joke: Q. which ministry looks after the safety of our nation? A. The ministry of de-fence! How he laughed. Not really noticing that for all the money he paid in taxes for this ministry to defend the nation, they seemed to spend an awful lot on attacking other countries. Never mind, he wasn't really politically minded and was quite busy building up his fencing business, which became very successful. He was wealthy, had a yard full of fences of all kinds. Life was sweet.

Then life turned sour, as it sometimes does. He developed a nasty disease possibly as a result of chemicals he used on his fences. He smoked cigarettes too. Put on a lot of weight. His resilient body started to complain. Then, just as the consequences of his lifestyle were leading to a cocktail of drugs trying to keep on top of the symptoms a mysterious virus arrived, throwing the whole world into panic (with a few exceptions) and the fence man saw the very real danger of something he had never before considered. Death.

His mind focused on this dreadful reality and changed as he saw the futility of his love of fences, the uselessness of all his money and the awful idea that he may have led a life without meaning.

He resolved there and then to clear the decks, simplify his life, do good deeds and give away all the fences in his yard. And the fence around the yard. His revelation was that all fences were fundamentally a limitation on freedom, their functionality notwithstanding. They had to go.

He advertised widely: free fences, all in good condition, everything must go!

Unlike most free things, this seemed genuine enough and many people phoned asking for a fence.
And could he deliver one, please?

Sorry, he replied, it's not possible, I'm self-isolating. Anyway, that's not how you get free fences.

I can only offer a fence, but it's not really a fence unless you take it.

The End.

Seeking the source ...

Cause and effect chains go on and on and take some untangling. And to move it from complicated to complex, in a world where everything connects to everything else, identifying which is cause, which effect, where to start and which way to go rather depends on who we are, what we know or think we know, our world view, our belief system, our way of life and way of making a living, our personality ...

It is said that if a human's only tool is a hammer, they will spend most of their time seeking and finding nails. We are purpose seeking animals.

This current crisis may go back to the time when humans shifted from thinking, to thinking about thinking, imagining ourselves separate from Nature ... superior  to the minerals, plants and other animals, inferior to the transcendent, that which is beyond description or understanding, which we foolishly named and began describing.

Humans separated from each other too, male and female, our group, their group, our country, their country. .. our religion, their religion, my job, your job and on and on ...

Along the way, incrementally, we bent the rest of Nature to meet our own needs, the lower levels to improve our economy, the upper level to offer magical beings in our own image, with power structures ...

We have to find an entry point to unfold our tale, though there are others and other tales too.

This one doesn't seek conspiracies or blame, just a plausible causal chain from, let's say 1950 to the present day ...conveniently enough this fits the life line of your writer, so some anecdotes from personal experience may add some colour, if not evidence in the scientific sense of the word.

The UK was emerging from the 2nd World War, heavily in debt to the new Superpower, which, as in the previous World War, known as the war to end all wars, chose the winning side to throw decisive behind at the optimum time. As is known, the punitive terms of the peace created the conditions for the horror show of the Nazis and their influential supporters around the world ... including many from the British establishment, who feared the Bolsheviks and their ruthless treatment of aristocracy, bourgeoisie and anyone else who opposed them. The Bolsheviks had their own reasons for concern, since their revolution in  October1917 was greeted enthusiastically by many war weary warriors, fed up with the futility of such violence, with the peculiar blood relationship of the royal families of Britain, Germany and Russia ... the infant Soviet Union was invaded by armed forces of previously warring nations and defended itself successfully with the practical support of its international friends ... mutinies were breaking out, reds of many hues prepared their own class wars, and the aggressors backed down. Not a great start.

Before leaving the dreadful Great War and sending this story so far, since it has plenty to chew over for attentive readers ... one of the less salubrious scenes from the start of the conflict was the peer pressure on reluctant warriors exerted by neighbours, exemplified by the handing out of white feathers by women, to do their patriotic duty and sign up to the organised murder of people they didn't know who were similarly encouraged to drop the universal law not to kill, indeed ordered to bayonet another human in the stomach at times ... peer pressure is a neutral phrase for what is known these days as social shaming ... interestingly rife in the current crisis, though on this occasion we don't have to kill anyone, just to stay indoors. And follow orders, though that's another war ...

to be continued ...

An outing

Brenda, 87, has an appointment for an xray on her very painful leg at the nearby, but not local, hospital. The criteria for Patient Transport has tightened, it's cancer or dialysis or make your own way.

Since one of the exceptions to House Arrest is volunteering, an escape is possible and we have a pleasant outing, without protection and even compliments from the fully masked and gowned radiographer for the act of kindness ... assuming an altruism which was absent ... maybe a fear that was absent too ... the folks on the front line are often facing their own fear and it's hardly surprising that fully a quarter of staff are at home for whatever reason ... the Government prioritise testing on them so they can drive them back to the coal face ... the mixing of metaphors is not accidental and war words are perhaps creating an unhelpful narrative and reality ...

Whilst it is good news that this "war" is not being waged between nations, notwithstanding some sniping and the unexpected spike in Iran, the virus itself is not so special and certainly not susceptible to attack nor inherently evil. Our bodies are host to all sorts of bacteria and viruses, living quite happily together, having adapted to be safe ... mostly ... scientific opinion about this current crisis is by no means universal, even whether a new virus even exists ... action to be taken to make friends with current symptoms and assist the immune system to rebalance the mechanism feels quite different to the old battle against disease, bashing symptoms into submission and leads to outcomes less harsh than this fear based slide into a police state ...

Shall we call it by its name and see how another perspective feels?

Solitary confinement is a cruel punishment for those already identified as elderly and vulnerable.
And it is done to flatten the curve, so they can get a shot at surviving in intensive care. Statistics will show how that works out, but if they die in there, which many will, that doesn't look like a peaceful passing to me ... and meanwhile, if that is the case, the weeks of misery will have been worthless ... health professionals warn about cross infection, yet look at all the exceptions ... postal workers, paper deliveries, food deliveries, fear deliveries ... this madness is surely a mass hallucination, and for all the opportunities to reset the way we live our lives, torturing the most vulnerable is not a justification when they are not even consulted.

Anyway, the still quite modern Bishop Auckland General Hospital is remarkably quiet, whether the calm before the storm or the calm before the long mooted closure not clear ... Brenda enjoyed her ride out and so did I ...