DESIRED THINGS - DESIDERATA

DAY TWENTY: Wednesday 20^th January  2021:

Good morning. I will be dropping the SMILE envelopes off to Dreamsai later this morning, SMILE envelopes to add to this week-end’s food parcels for vulnerable friends. Within these there is something very special to me, something I would like to share on today’s page:

September 1971, Freshers Day at Oxford. I have little recollection but there are two things which are still in my mind. Freshers Service: the college chaplain preached a sermon on King Lear. Even if sermons are meant to be preached in a boring mode this was beyond boring. I remember a friend putting his head against a pillar in the church and falling asleep. When the benediction came we were all ready to heave a sigh of relief but then for the benediction a group of students from the year above us read a poem: DESIDERATA, which means desired things.

Those words, those beautiful words, filled us all with inspiration. Instead of throwing away the order of service everyone took it away, cut out the poem and put it up on the wall of our study bedrooms.

Now, fifty years later, these words remain every bit as important to me. I would invite you to read them and make them important to yourself. Keep them close to your heart.

There are two passages within Desiderata which are of particular importance to me:

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And….

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy

Make them special to yourself and to your life.

 

DESIDERATA – DESIRED THINGS

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

 As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

 Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

 Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.

 If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

 Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

 Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

 Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

 Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

 Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

 Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

 Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

 You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

 And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.

 And whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

 With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

In writing this page that is a hard act to follow but let me try with SMILE OF THE DAY: And sometimes life is just hard, and some days are just rough…..and sometimes you’ve got to cry before you can move forward… (And all of that is OK.)

Have you ever hear of Old Moores Almanac ? Originally published in 1974 there are still annual publications to this day. I am thinking about taking all of our SMILES OF THEW DAY and building them with some fun information into an almanac of love. I have SMILE cards ready for the first six months of the year so I need to do July to December. I am not going to date a SMILE and its page but write the almanac in such a way that anyone can pick it up any day in any year. There are such things as leap years so I will need 365 pages. I am not sure if it will work as an e-book, possibly but I will need to get it into paperback format. I am thinking to make Sunday 14^th February the publication day.

I have this morning a special and supportive e-mail from Amazon regarding my poetry collection. I am feeling very positive as I rewrite the content to meet their copyright criteria. I am adding in some more poets and their works including this: 

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

That is Shakespeare if you did not know. I have always loved it but now I am: Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything I wonder if I should still like it !

Yesterday I wrote a total of 2,972 words bringing my total to 213,428. Now I am here going to make a bold statement here on Dave’s Diary – just as well nobody ever reads it – I am going to target myself to write 10,000 words today. Let’s see what happens.

ON THIS DAY let’s have a peep:

20^th January 1961: John F Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35^th President of The United States. Yep, I remember that. Hang on Wikithingymebob – you have listed that ion this day in 2021 Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46^th president. HANG ON !|  It hasn’t happened yet. Doh !

20^th January 1986; Martin Luther King Day is celebrated for the first time.

20^th January 1965: Sophie Countess of Wessex was born.

20^th January 1979: The singer Will Young was born.

20^th January 1993: Audrey Hepburn, born 1929, died.

20^th January 1994: Sir Matt Busby, football manager, born 1909 died.

If I do manage to write the almanac I want to wite it with love for all those who have gone, who are going the extra mile, the extra ten miles, the extra one hundred miles to care for us all in these terrible times.

Yesterday, The UK recorded the biggest death toll so far. ONE THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED AND TEN DEATHS ! Thirty-three thousand, three hundred and ninety nine more cases. These numbers are so hard to comprehend. As I lay my head on my pillow to sleep last night and as I tried to send love to ONE THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED AND TEN grieving families my body boiled with anger at that I saw in Morrissons Supermarket yesterday morning.

I am going to reproduce that I wrote on yesterday’s page:

Old Biddie ALERT – Old Biddie ALERT !

Vaccination or not I do not feel safe going out into a public place, a public place like Morrissons Supermarket. I go once every week or so and like to be there for when the store opens. I sit in my car and wait for the doors to open. This morning there were about half a dozen people lines up waiting, Among these was an old biddie with Mr Biddie. Neither were social distancing. Inside the store I watched Mrs Old Biddie doddering around with her mask pulled down from her face. Typical Old Biddie !  However, when I saw her at the cheese counter picking up one item after another, lifting it to her nose and sniffing before putting it back I found anger invading my being. I went to a member of staff and pointed out what was happening. She replied saying she had no authority to act.

I most certainly did not buy anything Mrs Old Biddie had sniffed but somebody will today.

Say that was a person in their twenties behaving like that what would the attitude be ? If the police were called what would they have done ?

OLD BIDDIE ALERT !  OLD BIDDIE ALERT !

If I had my way that old biddie would be locked in to a cell and the key thrown away.

I can not allow myself to get angry again so I will sign off. TEN THOUSAND WORDS today, how many have I written on this page ? Let me check. One thousand, six hundred and twenty-five. 8375 words to go.

Speak again tomorrow when we can see just how well I did !

Dave