Church of England synod vote " paves way" for female bishops

 

 

 

Church of England synod vote " paves way" for female bishops

 

 

Members of the clergy voted overwhelmingly in favour of new proposals which allow the ordination of women as bishops for the next year.
Mr Cameron said he would work with the Church to see women bishops in Parliament and he strongly supported women bishops and he hoped the Church of England took that key step to ensure its place as a modern church in touch with society .

Anglican practices and rituals are primarily found in the Book of Common Prayer, a compilation of liturgy developed by Thomas Cranmer in the 16th century. Anglican Christianity has many features in common with Roman Catholic Christianity but it also has differences such catechism or ordination of women , but women have never been allowed to hold high positions in Church until now. This leads us to our next pictures , the first woman bishop consecrated in Ireland, Pat Storey a married mother of two and now the bishop of Meath and Kildare ."Exciting and daunted", that  is as she says to feel ...

Shadowlands

Yesterday I watched " Shadowlands" .

This film tells the story of C.S.Lewis and  his autumnal romance involving the British writer C. and a divorced American woman named Joy Gresham ,who after a short time he marries .
But, who was C.S. Lewis ?

 He was a British novelist who wrote , among others," Nadia chronicles"and he held an important position at Oxford university , at the same time he gave speeches about God , we see that in the movie. He was raised as a Christian in Belfast when he was born but became atheist at the age of 15 and somewhere I have read a sentence that is supposed he stated " I am very angry with God for not existing " and I believe that this paradoxical declaration of lack of faith , summarizes perfectly the mix of feelings and bitterness of someone who ,without wishing it, has become atheist .
When he met J. R. Tolkien he recover his faith and he became part of the Church of England.

The important thing here is not telling the story but giving my opinion . I reckon that both actors are amazing as they establish a perfect connection and transmit a great deal of emotions through their looks, not only throughout their face expressions but also through the way they look each other. They are able to transmit melancholy, pain, happiness or hopeless and involve us in their inner thoughts and world.

As for the story itself , just to say that is really moving and surprising in its simplicity since is a love story happening in someone`s maturity . I have never thought that love could  be lived and felt so deeply at that age because passion  is commonly believed to be a feature of youthful . Her quite fortitude enduring the pain and her acceptance that she was to die and nothing lasts forever or that ,you enjoy things more when they stop seeming a dream and they become real again, are really striking contracted with his shyness and not acceptance of living his life without her . Watching the movie , I wondered how a human being is able to endure so much pain and go on living because when he cries in the attic you can just feel a lump in your through . How can someone face the vacuum that the death of someone you loved has left ?

During the movie he repeats a  theory , "suffering and pain are God's way of perfecting us, of carving away the wrong parts, of leaving a soul ready to enter heaven" but for his own pain , his theory   collapses because who wants to be perfect at expensive of suffering , especially , when human being are supposed to search for pleasure desperately.

Syrian refugees struggling at Christmas

 

 

Christmas is supposed to be a Christian commemoration of Jesus birth , it closes the advent, time of waiting for the arrival of Christmas. During the advent , Christians remember that Jesus came into the world in Palestine some years ago and on Christmas day , they celebrate his birth with a huge feast .

Christmas is also celebrated for a large number or non -Christian around the world since it is a time for being in family , having good intentions and exchanging presents , it could be said that Christmas is a time for being nothing but happiness, it could be...Nonetheless there is not certainty that happiness can be a reality for the Christian living in Syria. 

Christians are about 2/3 of the population in Beirut . They are preparing to celebrate their most important feast while in the streets of nearby villages ancient Christian communities have been caught up in the violence and crossfire.

People blame Islamic extremist for destroying coexistence in Syria.

That is what this report of BBC NEWS shows and states. 

 

 

 

 

 

Spaniards in London " Nice to meet you"

Spaniards in London( more than 5000 downloads) is a web serial about the adventures of some Spaniards in London. It looks at  their daily life ironically and deal with problems such as bad jobs, language barrier or cultural differences.
Because of the crisis, thousand of young Spanish have emigrated to London looking for a new start. It is not always easy  to leave your life behind and to be able to adapt yourself to new life conditions. The stories are real and very funny , some of the  situations lived by the characters remind me of some ridicule moments that I myself had to deal with from the very moment I landed there .I had the firm belief that after one year  living there,  English would come to me as easily as Spanish does . How come that didn´t happen ?
 I leave here the first episode as well as the link ;  www.spaniardsinlondon.com  

I´m totally hooked on it !
 

Mandela death

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25250082http://

Nelson Mandela, anti- apartheid icon and father of  modern South Africa, died at age of 95.
He was a inspiration for blacks and whites and its message of no vengeance and his lack of bitterness made him be admired by people from all social classes from political leaders to commonplace people.
When Mandela was released from prison ,he wrote: "As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.

We have to read Mandela´s Way for Christmas ,therefore we would understand better why today the world cries this man who turned a nightmare of inequality and racism into a reality of equality .

I leave here the link for us to know the world reaction to his death and some speeches from world leaders about Mandela death.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
― Nelson Mandela

"As you get older, you don´t get wiser. You get irritable. "-Doris Lessing

Today , the British writer Doris Lessing has passed away . She was awarded the 2007 Nobel prize of literature, among many more.

She wrote about social issues since she was a writer politically committed  She struggled passionately  for  freedom and equality between races,  engaging in Third World causes. Works such as "Memoirs of a Survivor" "The good terrorist" or "Briefing for a Descent into Hell" display her interest in social problems. She refused the title of "Lady of British empire" , awarded by  the Queen Isabel II ,  she stated  that there was no empire . 

Her novel "The Golden notebook" is considered a classic feminist work as it explores the theme of  women`s struggle and conflicts as sex, maternity, or work, besides  others .
Apart from novels, she wrote short stories, poetry and Drama.

Someone in her blog has written ""She helped change the way women are perceived, and perceive themselves" . She probably did so .

“I write because I've always written, can't stop. I am a writing animal. The way a silk worm is a silk-producing animal.”   - Doris Lessing.

  “If someone cracks up, what does that mean? At what point does a person about to fall to pieces say: I'm cracking up? And if I were to crack up, what form would it take?”
― Doris Lessing,     The Golden Notebook

  

Robert F. Kennedy - University of Kansas

 

This is another Robert F. Kennedy´s Speech. He talks about the war of Vietnam, poverty and unemployment in America, and obviously  , it has the three elements of a speech : logos, ethos and pathos

I especially like the way he speaks about poverty , he does so about the minute 13 ," I have seen children in the Delta area of Mississippi with distended stomachs, whose faces are covered with sores from starvation, and we haven't developed a policy so we can get enough food so that they can live, so that their children, so that their lives are not destroyed, I don't think that's acceptable in the United States of America and I think we need a change.
    
I have seen Indians living on their bare and meagre reservations, with no jobs, with an unemployment rate of 80 percent,and with so little hope for the future, so little hope for the future that for young people, for young men and women in their teens, the greatest cause of death amongst them is suicide. (...)
I have seen the people of the black ghetto, listening to ever greater promises of equality and of justice, as they sit in the same decaying schools and huddled in the same filthy rooms - without heat - warding off the cold and warding off the rats.

He uses repetitions, anaphora in this example, "I don't want to be part of a government, I don't want to be part of the United States, I don't want to be part of the American people, and have them write of us as they wrote of Rome: "They made a desert and they called it peace.", quotations; George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "Some people see things as they are and say why?  I dream things that never were and say, why not?", and, of course a "huge "end.

Remembrance Day

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24887778

 Today is an important day for the UK and the Commonwealth countries as the Remembrance Day or Poppy Day is celebrated .
This day remembers all the members of the army who died during the Great World,  or World War I .
When this war broke out, many citizens rushed to join the army feeling the duty of fight for their country and die with honour defending it .
The symbol of this day is a red poppy which grows near the graves of the fallen soldiers and the reason why the poppy has became its symbol is this war poem by McCrae . This poem is one of the best known of the war poems and it was used as an incentive for making men join the army. The poem, told in first person by  the dead buried in Flanders Field ,insists that the living should keep on fighting .

 In  Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders field.

Another famous poem that shares this romantic vision of the war is "The Soldier " by  Rupert  Brooke.

If I should die, think only this of me;

That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

(...)

 As time went by the romantic idea vanished into bitterness. Thousands of casualties, soldiers suffering from shell shock ,food shortage ... One of the best known poems of this period of disillusion is "Dulce Et  Decorum Est " by Wilfred Owen . This poem describes vividly  the horror  that the soldiers live in the war trenches .

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

(...)

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

One of my favourite war poem is "They "  by Siegfried Sassoon  . This poet helped Wilfred Owen to find his style since he wanted to tell to truth about the war .

THEY





THE Bishop tells us: ‘When the boys come back
‘They will not be the same; for they’ll have fought
‘In a just cause: they lead the last attack
‘On Anti-Christ; their comrades’ blood has bought
‘New right to breed an honourable race,
‘They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.’
‘We’re none of us the same!’ the boys reply.
‘For George lost both his legs; and Bill’s stone blind;
‘Poor Jim’s shot through the lungs and like to die;
‘And Bert’s gone syphilitic: you’ll not find
‘A chap who’s served that hasn’t found some change.’
And the Bishop said: ‘The ways of God are strange!’

Amy Winehouse : A powerful voice

 

 

It is difficult to find a video or  performance of Amy Winehouse where she does not appear drugged or drunk . Despite all her additions to different substances , her capacity to transmit feelings and emotions was endless .

 

This song describes someone´s feelings who has been dumped , how she tries to cope with grief , keeping herself  busy during the day but when night falls and there is nothing to do ,all her memories come back. She uses a language simple and direct which is , at the same time, visual ,poetic and sensitive. Really awesome.

 

 

 

The Sparrow

Her unblinking gaze was fixed on the chipped wall  .Outside, the storm was raging  while the antique clock  impassively  ticked the hours away. Weary of battling against the morose being living in her skin , she had  let her  life glide away.  . Suddenly , a sharp crash into the pane made her toss her head ,  she slid her hand out the window and took the tiny sparrow . A shiver ran through her spine .The clock struck twelve and the room went dark .

 

Clasping the little bird to her bosom she went to bed. That night, and the following ones, she dreamt about dramatic sceneries, giant waves lashing  the coastline and ancient, pagan, Celtic rituals.  As time went by , her dreams showed her how  to use mistletoe and marsh plants with healing properties . She established an abiding relationship with nature and  its deities , being able to forecast the future by watching the clouds”  What is happening to me ?” she wondered  bewildered ."Whatever it may be, it has given my life back over"

 

A crisp clear morning , while she was  admiring the sacred  places of the druids,  a woman with gnarled hands sauntered up to her . “  Release the sparrow  perched on your windowsill , someone´s souls is trapped in it ”

That night, overawed by sadness, she left the window wide open so that her friend flew away . It was snowing in Ireland, and it was in  J. Joyce`s work “The Dead"( …)”  the snow falling faintly through the uni­verse and faintly falling( … ) "  upon  all the liv­ing and the dead.”  but dead, cannot feel the snow “, she thought, while the snowflakes were soaking her skin . Then,seizing to life, she closed the window.

Paulo Coelho and...his quotes

 

  Some days ago, I came across an article called "Pump Up your energy " which gave us some tips in order to avoid the ups and downs of our daily life.

Among all the secrets shared, there was one  particularly weird
"Adopt your primal posture" According to the article , we should use the right muscles when we walk and  sit (in order to keep our elongated position ). Anybody knows what the primal position is? and , by the way, anybody knows what is the relation between sitting right and being happy ?

Positive as the article was, it also praised the virtues  of the "Emotional energy" hope, encouragement, optimism as the bases for boosting your moral .
 That reminded me of Paulo Coelho and some of his quotes :"It´s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting" "when someone leaves , it´s because someone else is about to arrive "  or the famous one "when a person really desires something , all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream".
That was my motto long time ago , when I was still naïve enough to believe that the universe has not better things to do that to  worry for me to achieve my aims  , but... if by any chance it were true; how many hours would have the universe to work if it were to materialise everyone`s dreams? Considering that the universe  was capable of making my dreams came true ,then, I could blame it for all my disappointments  rather than myself  for not having done better ,could I ?

I reckon ,you must do as much as you can for being happy in life, and that it is not only a matter of positive energy , quotes and sentences , but also a matter of struggle . No matter how hard I have tried, I can always strive to do it better .

Malala Yousuf Zai Speech at United Nations 12th July 2013

On 24 th , students and teachers have been called on strike. Because of the crisis and Goverment`s budget policy, both , the number of teaching staff and the amount of money destined to education ,have been reduced.The conditions required to access to a grant have worsened and harden.

Education is a right guaranteed by the constitution and UNESCO.
Education is not only the strongest , but also the only one tool that the least privileged ones have to climb the social ladder and to make class distictions became blurred.

Thousand of children are provided with schooling in our country  every year .Going to school is a routine, sometimes weary.

For Malala Yousuf , going to school is a challenge. Her courage and determination have strengthened in spite of the attack suffered going on  lingering on her memory .
 We are not always fully aware of the privilege that education means for some people, especially , if we stop to think why  someone ,who is just a child , becomes the voice of all the children that cannot be heard and  she  stands up for something that is thought to be a right.

Are tourists and travellers just two sides of the same coin?

 

Are tourist and travellers just two sides of the same coin or are they poles apart?
Is a traveller someone who puts a lot of effort into not being considered as a tourist ?  Are not going to museums , following set  itineraries  and being off the beaten track their tactics? Is the tourist just someone, who dressed in shorts and flowered shirt, sips a martini in a holiday resort?

According to the bloggers , there are differences although, strange as it may seem, they are not so striking . Some bloggers lays emphasis on how the journey is lived , what purpose leads us into doing so or how one gets involved . What travelling means for us, it is what  makes the difference.

Tourist is someone who wants to see what has already been discovery , escapes from routine and travels for pleasure , rather than passion. Travelling is a end and the" adventure"  starts when one gets the place . Everything is arranged in advance.

Traveller is someone whose passion is to discover and tries to capture the essence , understand and to interact  with local people . They go deeper than tourists and they became connoisseurs of  lifestyle, food or inner working of every single place they visit. Everything is as important as where you end up.

Other bloggers think that being a traveller or a tourist is a matter of how one is labelled  or wants to be labelled. The idea of being a traveller is over- romanticised  while being a tourist have many negative connotations .


.

Setting off on a journey

 



Every time I have a chance, I travel to UK.

The language is not my only reason for doing so. Great Britain has a stunning landscape, which entices to get lost .When I am there, I feel as if I were not “the old me” but a new and freer person, and metaphorically speaking, the world could be my oyster.

Last spring I visited Witney ,in Oxfordshire. It was a totally unexpected trip. I have a closed friend who works there. Although his job involves spending a lot of time at airports and on planes, on that occasion, he had a little spare time to share with me. He invited me to visit him and I jumped at the chance.

I flew from Málaga to Birmingham from where my friend picked me up. While he was driving to Witney, he told me he wouldn`t be able to drop me off at airport to take my flight back. At this point, I should say just three things:

Firstly, I have always been a little, ok, pretty hopeless at finding places by myself.

Secondly , if you have ever been to some small English village , there is no need to say its borders are blurred .It is always the same what you see from the bus , pubs ,off-licenses and bus-stops in the middle of nowhere. God , and the driver, only know where you will finish if you drop your guard !

Eventually , my friend had to work most of the time so I would have to move on my own ,otherwise I would be stuck in the hotel .

Our hotel was a charming centuries old stately house which is believed to be haunted. I`ve attached a photo, (of the place no of the ghost).

The following day, I decided I have just two options: I either pretended to be what I was not and I managed to get to Oxford on my own, or I showed my true self . Deep down, I didn`t want to seem such a coward. I had no options. I knew I`d better off pretending to be an adventuress ; therefore I took a bus , I kept an watchful eye on the way, and I arrived at Oxford.

Oxford is famous for his University but there are a few more places to visit. Before going there, I was advised drinking some cider near the river. You can see the peacocks swaggering about while you, sitting at your table, sip a drink.

During the few days I was there, I wandered about the streets. Buying some souvenirs and visiting Radcliffe camera are a most. One of my favorite places in Oxford is Blackwell`s book, a large room devoted to selling all kind of books. When you are there, time flies.

On my way back, an air-traffic controller strike held me up at airport for hours. Surprisingly enough, I didn´t consider being grounded a nuisance but an experience.

The whole trip was very special for me. Not only marked it the beginning of my” career as a traveler”, but I also spent a great time with one of my best friends.





  

How to Look at Art-Formal Analysis

On the internet, there are an awful lot of videos explaining how to look at artwork. After searching and watching some of them, I have chose this Goya`s work entitled "The third of May 1808" .This video seems to me a good example to follow in order to depict artwork.
I consider it very useful to became acquainted with  terms such as texture, shades, symmetry  or  complementary colours.

 Since looking at art is not as easy as it could seem at first sight , that is my impression, some extra help is always welcome, I reckon.

Manhood by Thomas Cole



Manhood, painted in 1842 by   Thomas Cole, belongs to a series entitled “The Voyage of Life”. The author uses universal symbolism, by which, we witness the voyage of a boy from the cradle to the grave, riding in his boat the different seasons of his life.

The first time you look at this canvas you feel impressed by the realistic and vivid depiction of nature. Nature, for Hudson River school, was not only an accurate portrayal of North America landscape, but it was also a metaphor of human soul.

Manhood depicts a man being swept away by the current while the water whirls into a rush of white foam. Standing up on his boat, he can hardly keep his balance on a boat without helm.  His hands are interwoven, begging for help as he has been left alone at the mercy of his inevitable fate.

 His guardian angel, who used to accompany him, is now placed at the top, on the left, up in the sky and barely visible to the naked eye. Between the man and his protector there is now a bank of black clouds, the angel can see him but the man can just trust  and pray.

He is belittled by the rugged   landscape. There is no grass or bright colours just twisted trees and a gloomy sky. This menacing scenery  stands for a stage of life  full of troubles and incertitudes. Without the naivety of childhood or the confidence of youth, the man feels weak to face his fate.

Everything is happening in the same direction, following the river flow; therefore, two main lines rule the scene, the main one to the small falls, the second one to the horizon.

In the foreground, on the horizon it is dawning. The darkness melts into the pale light of yellowish  shades.

 The first rays of sun, filtering through the clouds, and the ocean with its still water lend a certain peace after the rough trip. The ocean not only symbolizes the end of our winding voyage, but it also symbolizes death as its logical end.