George Harrison: The Experience

November is a time for remembering and by chance I came upon this old interview with George Harrison, the quiet Beatle. It's impressive, with some good photos of the Beatles in the sixties before he connected to the Indian philosophies and became deeply spiritual, misunderstood and ahead of his time.

"The purpose of life is to find out "Who am I?" "Why am I here?" and "Where am I going?" 

His basic message - nothing lasts. All flows, nothing lasts. Not your enemies, not your fortune, not who you sleep with at night, not the books, not the house in Marbella, -nothing lasts. To the degree that you avert your gaze from this truth, you build the potential for pain into your life. Everything worthwhile is the act of embracing the present moment, and then moving on to the next moment of experience. 

Towards better ...

Well, that was interesting. Tragic. Heartbreaking. Painful. Difficult.

Have more people ever been happier to see a year go away? Our attitude doesn’t have to be driven by the outside world, but most times it is. The outside world provokes, persists and insists on changing the story we choose to tell ourselves.

And one reason we invented the calendar was to keep the outside world at bay as we keep track of promises and so decide what to do next, –to respond politely instead of to react without thought.

For those of you keeping track, 2021 is the product of the prime numbers 43 and 47. If you were looking for a reason to be optimistic, that’s as good as any.

I remain convinced that this pandemic will end in 2021 — we will win, but life after victory will not be a simple resumption of life as it was. Big cities, big crowds, restaurants, and bars will be much less a part of life than before. Now that businesses have figured out how to decentralise, they'll stay that way; nobody will want to keep paying big city rents.

Thanks to family, relatives and friends for caring!

Here’s to health, justice and peace of mind as we choose an attitude of possibility and resilience for 2021.

Best TV Series 2012-2020

Last Tango in Halifax is pretty much the perfect family series. Beginning in 2012 Series 5 came on the iPlayer in February this year. It's based on lead writer Sally Wainwright's personal experiences. She described it as "the most personal thing I've ever written". Her mother, Dorothy, lost contact with a childhood friend, Alec Walker, when she was 15, but they reconnected on the social networking website Friends Reunited 60 years later and within six months were married. Alan and Celia's romance is depicted alongside the troubles of their own grown-up daughters, and the series' official description says that its portrayal of family is "as dark as it is comic". There’s real beauty in seeing amazing characters depicted by equally amazing actors in a real life setting. 

Discussing the casting of Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid, Wainwright stated: "we went for the best and we got them". Great stuff indeed.

In Memory ...

of Marlon's mother and Joyce's grandmother, Lissy Horvath, 1958 - 2019, Elvis fan.

Who passed away very sudenly and unexpectedly at home on 14th May, a sad reminder that all things must pass....

Destiny is all

A video by Matt Mahurin.



“You start at the end. You start with emptiness. You start with nothing. You start with the void… I lost my mother when I was 14. I learned so much from her vanishing. I wish it had never happened. I wish that I had been older. But as a young teenager staring hard into that void, this is where a certain life-force gathered pace in me. Where a certain defiance began. To defy the odds. To defy people’s expectation. To defy death itself. To rob it of it’s power over me or anyone else…
-Bono.

35 Jahre perbit

und 70 Jahre Richard Manuel.

Nachträglich vielen Dank an alle perbit'ler für die Geburtstagsgrüße und Geschenke letzten Januar.

Mein Leben als Rentner mit 70 und was mache ich jetzt?

Ich wurde oft in Trossingen während den letzten 6 Jahre gefragt, was machst Du jetzt? Seit 2013 bin ich Rentner. Das bin ich heute noch. Allerdings damit ich meine gewöhnten Lebens- Standard beibehalten kann, gehe ich arbeiten. Es ist eine Art irische Pensionierung. 

"Ich bin sehr damit beschäftigt, nichts zu tun
Den ganzen Tag arbeite ich hart daran
Dinge zu finden, die ich nicht tun muss.
Ich bin täglich damit beschäftigt, nirgendwohin zu gehen
Ist das nicht fast ein Vergehen?

Ich wäre gern darüber unglücklich, aber
Ich habe nie die Zeit dazu!"

Nach Bismarcks Einschätzung wäre ich vor fünf Jahren gestorben, also sind die Tage, Wochen und Monate die noch kommen eine Zugabe. Die traditionelle Grenze zum alten Kerl liegt jetzt hinter mir und ich stelle fest, ich bin ganz zufrieden mit dem allgemeinen Zustand des  „Rentner-Seins“; Das weil….

• Ich bin gesund. Das hat vielleicht mehr mit Glück als Verstand zu tun aber ich habe auch einiges dafür getan
• Ich weiß wer ich bin und was ich gut kann
• Ich bin ein freier Mann, in ein freies Land
• Ich bin nicht allein. Ich gehe durch’s Leben mit meiner Familie und Freunde neben mir
• Ich kenne meine Grenzen und habe mich damit abgefunden
• Ich habe mein Alltag so arrangiert, dass ich nur das tun muss was ich tun möchte. 

Dies ist mehr als Zufriedenstellend. Ich könnte mehrere Bücher darüber schreiben, wie es zustande kam, mache ich aber wahrscheinlich nicht.

Meine Großmutter wurde 90 Jahre alt.
Das ist auch mein Ziel, und abgesehen von möglichen nicht vorhersehbarer Ereignisse ist das im 21. Jahrhundert gut machbar. Dies bedeutet, dass ich womöglich zwanzig Jahre Zeit noch habe. Das ist eine lange Zeit und eine kurze Zeit; vor zwanzig Jahren habe ich mit Microsoft Basic Programme geschrieben, es kommt mir vor wie gestern.  

Aber meine Zukunftsstrategie steht schon fest:

• Ich werde weiterhin wie seit 1968 programmieren
• Ich werde meine Geschichten erzählen;
• Ich werde Geist und Körper trainieren;
• Ich werde die Gesellschaft meiner Familie und Freunde weiterhin genießen;

Und das, insbesondere heute Abend in Nussdorf bei Theo. Danke fürs kommen und viel Spaß. 

Billy Graham and Bono

With the passing of the Rev. Billy Graham today at the age of 99, it seems appropriate to share Bono’s poem. He wrote it about Graham when he visited him and his family on March 11, 2002. (The poem and photographs are on display at The Billy Graham Library)

May you rest in peace, Billy Graham.

U2, the psalms, Billy Graham, words worth following.

New years day

Happy New Year zu allen perbit'ler, insbesondere unser Kollege Ralf Scheidl. Programmierer und Freund seit 1987.

Frohe Weihnachten!

Frohe Weihnachten an alle perbit'ler und einen guten Start ins neue Jahr mit der Cloud und Azure.

Saisonende

Der Laufsaison 2017 ging für mich gestern in Gosheim auf der Lemberg bei strahlender Sonnenschein zu Ende. Erfolgreich!

Silberdistelalbcup, Sieger Altersklasse M65.

When the fire goes out

In Sebastian Barry’s novel, A Temporary Gentleman, Jack McNulty, protagonist and narrator of the story, sits in a house in newly-independent Ghana and writes a memoir of his life. It is not a happy tale, there are more regrets than happinesses, there are chances lost forever, moments that will never be redeemed, hurts that cannot be healed, but McNulty never drifts for long from a mood of optimism:

Our greatest trouble and our saving grace is that we have a soul. Time may seem like a great flood dragging with it all the debris of the past and catching you at last running through your own fields. Where there was once a great fire may seem only an ember now in the palm of your hand. But the ember is the soul and nothing on earth can rescind it.
-Sebastian Barry’s novel, A Temporary Gentleman

Our greatest trouble? That sense that life can never be entirely abandoned, that our failures and wrongdoings remain with us?
Our saving grace? That opportunity remains for failures to be corrected, for wrongs to be righted?

And indeed that we have a soul. (She too, I would hope.)

Without Jack McNulty’s ember, without a soul that cannot be rescinded we live lives of very little meaning and hope.

I can see clearly now, or soon..

Here I am in the Augenklinik in Tuttlungen 20 minutes after my successfull eye operation last Tuesday. Thanks to the team that took such great care of me, especially to Dr. Mathey for his steady hands and June for the ambulance service. It's nice to have it over and done with. 

The official term for what took place is "pars plana vitrectomy with membrane peeling".
Sometimes, as a result of immune system response to protect the retina, cells converge in the macular area as the vitreous ages and pulls away in posterior vitreous detachment (PVD). Usually it occurs in one eye first, and may cause double vision if the image from one eye is too different from the image of the other eye. The distortions can make objects look different in size (usually larger = macropsia), especially in the central portion of the visual field, creating a localized or field dependent aniseikonia that cannot be fully corrected optically with glasses. Partial correction often improves the binocular vision considerably though. In the young (under 50 years of age), these cells occasionally pull free and disintegrate on their own; but in the majority of sufferers (over 60 years of age) the condition is permanent. The underlying photoreceptor cells, rod cells and cone cells, are usually not damaged unless the membrane becomes quite thick and hard; so usually there is no macular degeneration. Surgeons can remove or peel the membrane through the sclera and improve vision by 2 or more Snellen lines. Usually the vitreous is replaced at the same time with clear (BSS) fluid, in a vitrectomy. There is no good evidence for any preventive actions, since it appears this is a natural response to aging changes in the vitreous 

So make sure you have your eyes tested before you're 60 so that you can still climb trees with your grandchildren, right Joyce?

  

Christmas Day

Christmas came, and we enjoyed just being at home together in Trossingen. All six of us (June, Stephen, Silke Marlon, Joyce and I) got the presents we wanted and had a late turkey dinner after a walk in the woods. Joyce got new Star Wars figures to go with Stephen's old ones, amongst many other things, even STAR WARS Monopoly which she went on to win in the evening. Poppy kept a watchful eye out for Coco. We had a good Christmas. 

After Christmas, Steve, Marlon and Silke went to see the new Star Wars movie. A week long break for me but there's still a lot to be done, and soon I'll be back to doing it. Maybe even writing that book!

GESEGNETE WEIHNACHT...........ZEIT ZUR ENTSPANNUNG........................

                                BESINNUNG AUF DIE WICHTIGEN DINGE ………

                                                   UND VIEL ERFOLG IM NEUEN JAHR.

Das Jahr 2015 neigt sich dem Ende zu. Ein hoffentlich gutes Jahr für alle von uns. Ich wünsche uns alle eine ruhige Vorweihnachtszeit und ein frohes Weihnachtsfest, Gesundheit, Glück und Erfolg für das Jahr 2016.

"The soul's joy lies in doing."

-Percy Bysshe Shelley 

Fourth Sunday of Advent

“My soul magnifies the Lord” Luke 1:46

The Magnificat, the Song of Mary, the words are so familiar that we may miss what they might say to us. If we read the words, we find there are certain contrasts that tell us about God and that tell us about ourselves.


The contrast between real power and imagined power. Verse 51 says, “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.” The Jewish people have seen great empires come and go; the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Persians, each empire appeared in the Scriptures that would have been read in the synagogue, Sabbath by Sabbath, and each empire then disappeared. God’s strength continues century after century, and those who thought themselves great have been scattered, their names have been forgotten, their empires have become passing details in history. The verse has much to say to us today, when we watch the news and become concerned about worldly powers, we should remember that God scatters the proud, that those who believe themselves great in our own times will count for no more than all the proud empires of the past. Next time we watch the news, we might ponder God scattering the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.


Another contrast is one described in Verse 53, “he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” It is a statement about what God has done, about how his Kingdom works, but, when one looks at the world, it seems far removed from reality: the hungry are still hungry and the rich have not gone away empty. It is a contrast that is still to be fulfilled for those whose daily life is one of absolute poverty, those for whom every waking hour is a struggle to care for their families and themselves, but there are signs of God’s Kingdom coming. The communities where there is the greatest sense of sharing, the greatest joy, the strongest ties, are not those where affluent lifestyles are lived behind ever more sophisticated security systems, they are not those where people find themselves spending more and more on the latest cars, the latest technology, the latest fashion, the latest label; the strongest communities are to be found among those who are poorest in the world. Spend time in African villages where poverty is extreme and there is an extraordinary sense of the warmth and generosity of the people; spend time in the most affluent parts of Dublin, and people will pass you without speaking. There are riches that do not appear in financial statements.
-Ian Poulton.

B.B. King RIP

B.B. King died last Thursday at the age of 89. He was just magical on tour with U2 in 1989. In 1988, B.B. reached a new generation of fans with the single "When Love Comes to Town", a collaborative effort between King and U2 on their Rattle and Hum album.




"I'm no good at chords!" -must be one of the best understatements of the 20th century!

"I'm one of those rebel kind of guys. They kinda, look at me kinda wierd, they say, here he is a 62 year old and look what he's try'n to do!"

I'm more than glad to say I saw him after Rattle and Hum at the Hohentwielfestival (near Singen) in 2004. Thank you for all those many years of music B.B.

And luckily enough his life story is here, filmed in 2012.

12 days in Ireland

At Easter and one of the highlights was two days in Killaloe, what a great place when the sun shines. Vicky and Philip are lucky to live there. Here are Joyce and I at the lake house, 

And Silke and Joyce after a game of football,

And drinks before dinner on the banks of the Shannon.

Mr. Spock

I was sad to read of the passing of Leonard Nimoy, Spock in Star Trek. In the hands of a lesser actor, Spock could easily have been a shallow nerd. But Leonard Nimoy played him as a character who was logical, sophisticated and intelligent.

In so doing, Spock in particular was an inspiration to programmers in the 1970's when it was fashionable for science fiction on TV to be mainly silly and confused. He was a good antidote to that before the hichhikers guide.

I was not a committed Star Trek fan then, simply because I was in Germany and didn't see much english TV. Star Trek was however the only TV show that was free to present ideas about humanity and society and in spite of that it was unpretentious, it did not present itself as a highbrow philosophy program.

That, of course, is part of the point of being intelligent. If you are intelligent, you can say things that ordinary people understand. If you can't, maybe you aren't.

Growing Old?

Happy Birthday noch einmal to me, so far so good!

"To win through by sheer force of genius is one thing; to survive and continue to create when every last door is slammed in one’s face is another. Nobody acquires genius — it is God-given. But one can acquire patience, fortitude, wisdom, understanding. Perhaps the greatest gift [is] to love what one does whether it causes a stir or not."

-Henry Miller

Shortly after his eightieth birthday, Henry Miller wrote a beautiful essay on the subject of aging and the key to living a full life. It was published in 1972 in an ultra-limited-edition book titled On Turning Eighty (public library), alongside two other essays. Only 200 copies were printed, numbered and signed by the author. Unfortunately in 1972 I wasn't clever enough to buy one.

Greatness

             -Wendy MacNaughton

Behind every great person there is someone who enabled his or her ascension. These friends, relatives, partners, muses, colleagues, coaches, assistants, lovers, teachers, and caretakers deserve some of the credit. When you consider your own life, there are dozens of people who have guided you along your path — whether a teacher from fourth form who finally got you to raise your hand in class, a family friend who gave you your first camera, or that whiskey-sipping uncle who’d tell you stories. These relationships shape our lives, some lightly and others with more impact.

Quite often we don't realise that the loving and staunch support of other people is one of the greatest privileges. And for many people we’ve come to celebrate as geniuses, such human support was precisely what made their achievements possible.