I'm watching Richard Attenborough's biopic of Gandhi, and coming to some interesting conclusions. I think after discovering the idea of Humanism, through the late stand-up comic Linda Smith, I've been looking for something, well, not exactly spiritual but meaningful in an atheist life. While I have no longing for church services and for a connection to my creator (I still believe something happened to create the universe, but I'm not comfortable with the idea that a creator is taking an interest in our lives, less still mine specifically), I miss the sense of community that Christianity, specifically Catholicism, provided for me and still provides for many of my good friends and my family, though I know it's alway there for me to go back to, if I'm ready to change my beliefs.
I've just got to the bit where he turns away help from the British clergyman, saying that 'We must believe this can be done by Indians alone'. There's some injustice in Britain, but none that I feel so strongly about that I'm going to devote my life to opposing it (well, not yet, ID cards are on the horizon...). So when there's nothing to fight (not that is my fight anyway), what can I do to make the world a better place?
I've also been thinking about my career recently, and I think I've realised that I don't want to be successful for money or prestige - maybe because a higher level job brings more exciting challenges, but as long as I can eat, and I'm comfortable, I don't have any need for progression or promotion. Right now I want for nothing. A friend wrote today and told me about her calling, and where she felt God wanted her life to go, and that was food for thought (thanks for writing what you did, if you're reading). I'm probably feeling left out! I want a calling too!
As Leititia said when we were watching the Sultan's Elephant and she said something nice about French people, and someone replied 'Thanks very much', 'De rien, c'est gratuit'. Kind words cost nothing. I'm going to try to do that more often (and not just to pretty ladies with fabulous hair at operas in the park!). The majority will think nothing of it, but some will take it to someone else, and make their day better too. There's not enough of that in London. How do you promote a sense of community in 7 million people with as many sets of beliefs and opinions, and a hundred different languages and cultures?
And to my friends and family - you're the most important thing, you always will be, even if I go back to the Church, or to anything else. I'll try to tell you that more often, and not just in a drunk 'I fuckin' luv you' way!
Sorry this post has been a bit weird. I hope it doesn't sound self-indulgent or Messianic or whatever, I think I'm just trying to find a way of sharing my beliefs with a community I still haven't found, and I find all of this easier to type than to say. I guess the way to a better life is to make sure the people who mean something to you know that they do, and that you're there for the people with problems. And I'm probably still going to drink too much and revel in material possessions (I do love my kites...) but if this is all written down where people can see it, maybe I'll have to do something about it.
Chances are if you're reading this you're someone I know and like. So for the sake of a punchline, 'I fuckin' luv you!' Suggestions on a postcard please, for what we can all do to make life better for everyone. I'll ignore comments such as 'Don't drink a bottle of gin and several pints of pear/apple cider, bite your friend's fingers and talk a lot of crap all afternoon'. And I promise to go back to posting trivial observations on my social life tomorrow, cause I'll have stopped watching Gandhi and feeling spiritually inadequate!
Edit: It's probably a coincidence, but it's poignant that the only above-ground explosion in what is, disgustingly, becoming known as 7/7 (the terrorist attacks on London nearly a year ago) was in Tavistock Square, right by a statue of Mohandas Gandhi (that was a well-placed post on Policyblender, Ben). Ironically, the attacks probably did more to make Londoners closer to each other than anything in the last decade.
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As Britain, the West and indeed the World lets its identity as a 'community' (on whichever scale) slip further and further away it is important to remember that like the butterfly flapping in Indonesia causing a hurricane in The Gulf of Mexico every action has an effect. Some of these effects may be totally unidentifiable but others are not (both good and bad moods are infectious). Personally I like the idea of Karma which is (as far as I'm aware) fundamentally based on the fact that 'what goes around comes around'. This is true for a number of reasons; if you're in a bad mood you're going to potentially make those around you similarly ill-tempered which in turn is likely to make them act in a worse way towards you just as you acted towards them, also your mood and general manner influences how you look at life and situations so someone that is always moody is always going to see the worst in things.
People are just animals, some more intelligent and self aware than others but animals all the same. Animals can sense things. Animals react to their environment. Animals will always look out for themselves but if certain concepts of society and family are instilled in them they will look after each other.
Making the world a better place doesn't need to be a case of making some grand gesture; campaining for peace, living in a forest being totally self sufficient and 'at one' with nature, saving the whales, etc. If everyone was nicer to each other, more aware of their surroundings and their place within them and generally decent (for simplicity to avoid opening a discussion into the definition of the word 'decent' I'm using the generally understood defenition here as guided by British laws and common sense) the world would be a better place. The more 'good' individuals there are the better the whole is.
We are the masters of our own destiny and have the power to change the world, in fact every one of us does. Every breath you draw every thing you do and everyone you encounter is part of your chance to influence your life and the life of every living thing on this tin-pot planet. Those of you that have friends and family that care about you, those of you that care about others, those of you that take responsibility for your actions and do what you can to help improve life for yourself and those around you... you are changing the world and the day you die the world becomes a darker place for those whom you have touched, but ultimately you have made a difference and after the mourning is over the world remains a richer and better place for having had you in it.
Here finish'eth the gospel of Gonce.
PS. "Be excellent to each other"
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