Tuesday 6th December

We had a Vernissage at the Cafe on Sunday night; it is a sort-of ‘meet the Artist; event.  And I got talking to one of the Artists, a photographer – but whose real passion was Philosophy.  I realised pretty soon that we had much in common, and that although I often seem obsessed by Politics, it is really Philosophy which is at the core of my thoughts.  It is that eternal struggle to discover just what it is which makes us, the possibly cleverest and certainly most dangerous of animals, that little bit different – in essence what it is that makes us Human.  And the struggle for a decent humanity, a way of living your life at peace with a World of chaos; of reconciling the contradictions both within and outside ourselves, and finding if not the answers then at least the correct questions to be asking.

Now, I never studied Philosophy so, like most people I suspect, my Philosophy is a home-baked mixture of basic Christian values tempered by my life experiences.  And I realise that everything I write is part of that attempt; to put into words, which is all I have at my disposal, a view of how we should be living our lives.  The books I read, and even much of the music I listen to is also part of that process of discovery – what it is to be Human.  I suspect that almost everybody is much the same, even if they have never sat down and tried to define what life is all about.  And Politics is just a part of trying to work out the best way of putting that Philosophy into practice. We didn’t ask to be born, and at times Life is a trial, often of our own making; but we must make the best of it – this Life is, despite most Religious views, the only one we have.  And part of that getting on with living is discovering what makes us Human.

Philosophy, the only real subject that should be taught in schools is sadly neglected; I didn’t really know it existed until I left school and had to contend with the real world. But maybe it was always there, simply undefined; waiting to be discovered like Love itself.