The Wave

On Saturday I decided to do something which I had never done before, I went on a protest.

Currently there is a UN Summit taking place which some are deeming ‘the biggest environmental meeting in history’. Decisions made here are inevitably going to have an affect on us (all of humankind) and the world we live in, they will indeed affect all creation.

Saturday then was The Wave.  The biggest environmental meeting was matched by ‘the biggest ever climate change march’. 50,000 people, spanning all walks of life and organisations, walked the streets of London and encircled Parliament.

Now my protesting experience is limited, so I kept a low profile. I stayed near the back, I kept my voice down, I didn’t wave a banner or placard and I certainly didn’t blow a whistle (if I learnt anything from the day it was that whistles should be restricted to one person, and one person only, during a sporting event or in a very open space.)

The reason I was there is because I feel these issues are important and I think political pressure (such as protest) is a valuable way of raising such issues with the governing bodies. Climate change isn’t simply an issue of environment but it goes hand in hand with the fight against poverty. It also cuts right through the heart of our capitalist ethos.  It’s important stuff.

Having said this I think I learnt a lot whilst on my little jaunt around London, and I have to be careful because I’m going to be exceedingly hypocritical and judgemental but, most notably that protest must be met with individual action. Integrity is everything. Can we shout at the government to make the right global decisions when we don’t make the right lifestyle decisions? Can we hold up a placard denouncing capitalism with a £500 digital SLR round our neck and a £100 Northface Jacket on? (told you I was going to be judgemental)

Now I know at protests you get some very very devout people and I respect these people but I also realise that a protest is a rally and it rallies people who know little about the subject or have little personal concern for it. Is this a bad thing you may ask. Who is to say?

I think there is a place for protest and I think there is a place for ‘being the change you want to see in the world’. When these two things come together we have a powerful and legitimate tool.

I’m not claiming to have this balance, in fact I’m not that clued-up on the facts and I’m not making all the right life-style choices. But, these were precisely the reasons I kept a low profile (rather than waving my placard at drivers stuck in traffic as if I’d never stepped in a car before.)

This leads to the inevitable question of, surely if we waited for everyone to be sorted then we wouldn’t have protests? Perhaps this is right, perhaps we have to protest through our weakness. But I think the fact remains that it is a lot easier to rally 50,000 people to walk for a few hours about an issue than it is to encourage 50,000 to make sacrifices in their personal lives to combat that issue.

And I would say that until we get people (including me) protesting with their lives we will not take vital steps to slowly climate change and eradicating poverty.

Body Worlds

On Saturday I had the privilege of taking my girlfriend to see Gunther Von Hagens’ Body Worlds Exhibition – yep, that’s right we went on a date looking at real dead bodies! For those of you who don’t know, the Body Worlds Exhibition is a travelling exhibition, which has preserved donor bodies and organs using a technique called plastination, halting decay and leaving the bodies visible. It was an amazing experience and, although quite expensive, well worth a visit. Check it…

http://www.visitlondon.com/bodyworlds/

The tour began with embryos, foetuses and new borns, and progressed into old age, taking a look at individual aspects of the human body, there specific roles and qualities. Basically, the exhibition helped me recap my GCSE biology but the exhibition has promoted me to blog because you can’t help come away with a huge appreciation for how complex the human body is – even a 5 weeks in the womb. It’s literally amazing, and its right here in front of us all day and we completely take it for granted all the time!!

Being an engineer (well, nearly), I looked upon the human body as the ultimate in engineering masterpiece, with the best examples of materials, computing power, clever pumps and fluid flows, complex pulley systems, mechanical systems, control systems, damping and lubricating systems, protection systems, audio/visual systems and energy systems, and all of this confined into a relatively small and lightweight structure which has the ability to stand alone, be independent, make individual decisions, grow and reproduce itself over and over again but each time in unique and distinct ways.

I learnt loads and I’m half tempted to list off all these amazing statistics and facts I learnt about my own body, but the only thing I wrote down whilst I was there was this, written on one of the display cards, “The Brain is the most complex object in the known universe”.

And guess what, the universe is a freakin big place and you’ve just used your own personal brain to read what I’ve written with mine…

One World, One People, One Dream

Growing Together: One World, One People, One Dream…does this mean one faith?

Can world faiths share common goals yet maintain their diversity? And if yes, why does history tell us otherwise?

The other day local Loughborough members of the Quaker, Islamic, Brahma Kumaris, Hindu, Druid, Baha’i, Mormon and Christian faiths came together to discuss these issues, as part of One World Week – the theme, growing together.

There was a resounding consensus that all the faiths could and should work together for common goals – peace, justice, love, etc. All the faiths seemed to advocate that despite issues about the afterlife, what we did in this life mattered, to you, to me and to ‘God’. (Unfortunately no discussion on how we can work together practically)

However, it wasn’t long until someone posed the question ‘how can you work together despite you various differing views on salvation’. This is where things got interesting and to be honest left me a little all over the place.

Various views were given and it would be impossible to recount all that was said – you should have been there. I think the overall conclusion was that we are all on some kind of journey trying to work out salvation in our various ways and forms.

Some advocated that if you get it wrong then you might be back in another shape or form to try again.

Others said that how you were in this life would affect how good the afterlife was for you.

Some said that if you followed God (despite the name God was given – Allah, Jehovah, Jesus, Brahman) then you were on the right path – although what it means to follow God was never explored.

In any case, the impression I was left with was that it’s ok to pick and choose this bit and that, live a good life, follow some God fellow and I should be in the right direction. I guess this is how many of us view the world.

But for me, although I’m in no way an exclusivist when it come down to these things I’m still not sure what I think about the whole ‘pic and mix’ religion thing…

Soul Survivor

Ok, so I is back from Soul Survivor and my Soul just about survived.

I expect those of you who know me and know Soul Survivor are probably expecting me to be cynical, complain about it and tell you why I didn’t like it – and other that the opening line I’m going to save all that for another time…

Soul Survivor was wicked, it wasn’t the be all and end all, but undisputedly it was a very important week for thousands of people, I enjoyed it, God did some mental things and some great things have and will come out of it.

I’d like to share one of the many things I learnt.

People often talk about faith being a gift from God, and I never really got why God would give some people that gift and not others, in fact I still don’t get it. But at Soul Survivor I really felt that faith was part of me, as if it was integral to my being, almost as if it was a gift from God.

I consider myself to always be a child of faith, and don’t feel I had a conversion moment (although I do have key stepping stones). Over the years I have wrestled with God, not literally but it is a very fitting word. There have been times when I’ve wanted to give up, when I haven’t understood and when I’ve been pretty mad (and sad) at God. There have been times when the sand from under my house has completely caved in, times when everything has been striped away, times when everything falls apart.

But something deep down in me has always known of a ‘greater reality’.

It sounds a little bit like blind, child like faith, which I’m not a great fan of, but I can’t really describe it. Despite my intrinsic cynicism and my passion to find answers to questions there is something within me that knows God is real.

Paul, when writing to the Churches in Ephesus, talks about the ‘mystery of Christ’ and a ‘love that surpasses knowledge’.

I’m pretty much completely mystified by God, and my knowledge cannot contain God, and neither can my words, but perhaps that’s the fun of it…