Eve lingerie detail photograph Russell Hand © ®
How and What I Think and Why… It was suggested that I make my article into smaller sections and I have rearranged some… Part I
1. Mindfulness and Tai Chi should be taught in every school on the Planet, from the earliest age possible. Which will open up the minds of people to process new information, and help them to appreciate life and existence more.
2. People need to be taught to ‘think’, and taught how to ‘think critically’ from as earlier age as possible. Just like they are taught language etc… The assumption that people naturally think in anyway is wrong. They are taught to think but generally in an extremely limited way. Most people think they think, but if they actually learnt to ‘think’ they would realise how limiting their thought processes were before and how much more they appreciate life, find purpose as their thought processes expand and their ability to process new information does too. Very few people throughout history have produced original thought, which is why they are remembered. Plato, Hypatia, Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci etc… etc…
3. Women should be legally the equal of men everywhere on the planet. Have the right to believe, dress, think etc how they like.
4. Every person on the planet has the right to think and believe what they want as long as they do not interfere with anyone else or force them to their beliefs. Also not to believe if they want. As at the moment in many countries people do not have that option, and I both suspect and have been told that many particularly the young do not want to be forced to believe in something they do not want too.
5. The world needs balancing as do the people in it.
That is a start, I do think a lot of good causes get hi-jacked by people, opportunists and people doing things through total self interest claiming to be part of a good cause for their narcissistic, egoistic own ends.
“It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare…” Edmund Burke
My art is suppose to raise human consciousness and make people think. I know it does with people that already ‘think’, whether it does with other people I do not know.
This is the beginning of a book I am writing about the time I travelled around the Mediterranean backpacking with a friend which is actually true and what happened, all my stories are true. I have not lead the most ordinary life or had ordinary things happen.
Thundering Through the Desert Being Chased by a Pack of Wild Dogs. (Working Title for my book)
“Though the story of my first odyssey around the Mediterranean, it starts with an event so many years later, that is so connected to this story, and so many others through my life…
It was a strange day, standing at the old harbour at Mykonos, then it had been an unusual time on the Greek islands on this journey, a place I was no stranger too. Standing at the old harbour on Mykonos looking across to Mykonos town, the lights reflected in the water, and giving the usual magic to an evening on a Greek island, but with this difference, people coming down to promenade, passing calling out ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’ to me. It was 2015 though I had been on this and many other islands many times before. I stood there wondering what was happening not for the first time, gazing at the lights and hearing the people call out to me, so many memories drifted through my mind of all the other times I had stood on Mykonos not just on this trip but so many times in the past. Time, and as time ruptured in my mind I fell through space and time to that first time. Again time, that part of space time matter. Then maybe to at least understand the events of that day, something from that first journey long before to being on Mykonos in 2015.
A part from that first journey, an extract from much later in this the story of my first odyssey. So many years before I stood at the old harbour of Mykonos in 2015.
We had been riding along the edge of the desert where it meets the lush growth from the Nile. When a pack of about twenty dogs broke out of the vegetation, wild or feral, who knows, the horses were walking, our guide shouted, and started his horse into a gallop, mine leaped forward from walking to a gallop and I looked behind at my friend, luckily his horse followed suit as he had never ridden before, I saw him grip the saddle with his hands. The dogs were running towards us at a tangent, the nearest were almost on top of us and leaped at our legs saliva dripping from their jaws, trying to pull us from the horses. We headed out into the rolling dunes of the Sahara thundering on, with the pack chasing, my friend swearing and my laughter mixing with the horses breath like a bellows in a blacksmiths forge, feeling the pounding of its heart through my legs, and the snarling of the dogs, laughing with the exhilaration, joy and pure pleasure of existence…
But then even further back, something from before I ever left on any journeys, except maybe the initial one, that of being born, that set my feet upon the road that lead to being called ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’, though in many ways it still mystifies me, how they would know me, why they should come to see me, before I left the island of Mykonos, that time in 2015 and call to me ‘Odysseus’ and ‘beauty’.
Before I fall many years into the past, through space, time, matter maybe I should mention I have been on many odysseys of different kinds. Also about earlier on that day; I was at the old port, the one I have known since my first time on Mykonos so many years before, though I had landed at the new port. One of the many changes I have seen since my first stay on the island… So near the old port is a café I go to for internet and a drink. The woman working in the bar says “Hello” as I go in and then says “I recognise you, you have been here before” I reply, “I have been on Mykonos before but this is the first time I have been down to the old port on this trip.” She says again ‘I am sure I recognise you’. I am tired and have not slept on the last ship, the one that dropped me at the new port. Also trying to decide whether to stay on Mykonos or go straight onto Athens. As I am sitting out front at the tables, two women keep looking over and I can hear some comments they are making in English… “It is him”.. “He doesn’t like being recognised”… “Should we say something”… I am getting nervous something I am not used too, because of being hassled on some other islands I am thinking it is going to start again here. As well as not generally getting nervous in life, I get paranoid even less if ever. One of the things about travelling, being in strange places and passing through different cultures, not something for someone that either gets paranoid or suffers from paranoia. So there I am sitting in a bar, having a beer, well greek larger. Seeing two women looking over and then talking apparently about me, as those two and myself are the only ones sitting outside the bar at the time and apart from looking over at me they keep referring to ‘him’, me being the only male around. I turn round and say out loud, ‘You should not believe everything you read on the internet’, sure someone or many have spread lies about me which has caused me to be hassled. They start speaking quietly to each other, but I hear them say, “What, is he saying it is not true”. I go into the ticket office next door to the bar and ask about the next ship / ferry leaving, it is a high speed ferry to Athens. I go back to my seat outside the bar thinking do I leave and turn up in Athens late at night or get a room on Mykonos. I have checked online and can get a room on Mykonos or in Athens, another thing that has changed since I was first on Mykonos or even on more recent journeys, online booking. Then while I am sitting there two guys turn up on a motorbike and look over at me smiling. I am beginning to wonder not for the first time what is going on. The guys off the motorbike go into the ticket office looking across and smiling at me as they go in. People smile for many reasons, one thing I have known most of my life, it is not always friendly. Then they leave after about 5 minutes looking over again at me and then ride off. Normally I would have just found it a bit strange, no more than that. After about 10 minutes I decide to book a ticket to Athens leaving that night. I go back into the ticket office and ask the woman behind the desk if the men who came in just now said anything about me, she said “No why ?”, I said “Well they kept looking over at me.” She said “No, do not worry about it.” Then I asked her for the ticket to Athens for later that day or evening as it turned out. She looked quite shocked and said “You are not staying, you are going straightaway ?” I said “Yes, why ?” she said “I am just surprised”. In normal circumstances I would have brushed it off, but it was not so normal, though I have lead an unusual life in many ways, there was definitely a strangeness this time.
Earlier on this journey on Santorini a group of what looked like early retired people had walked past me, staring at me and saying “24 or 28 no more” amongst themselves but apparently about me, something I could say was passing strange as this was 2015, and rather ridiculous. Though one of the reasons I do not always like getting fit and tanned as most seem to think I am much younger than what I am, which might sound good but can cause me problems not of my making. Back to later in the year and Mykonos. So except just how young they were saying I was, not that unusual in my life.
I get the ticket and am leaving Mykonos that evening, I book a hotel in Athens online, The Byron the cheapest hotel I could find in the middle of Athens. Well I do write poetry and Lord Byron was a poet who also loved Greece. People keep coming and going at the old port which is nothing unusual though they all keep looking over at me. It is still 3 hours or so till the ferry comes and I leave. I eventually decide to leave the bar and walk the 100 metres or so to the old port where the ferry will arrive. I head to the old port with my backpack. My backpack, a back to front leather cap, a sleeveless t-shirt and a pair of shorts and a pair of blue aqua shoes. When I first arrive the place is empty, open and quite industrial looking, though on the small scale almost like a bus station. As the sun gradually goes down more people start to arrive and wait at the port, most taking no notice, but others looking at me and talking amongst themselves. The old port is very small and gives a beautiful view across the harbour to Mykonos town. Standing there thinking, looking at that view, Mykonos as a whole, of all the beautiful memories I have of the place and the Cyclades Isles and the many other places they lead me and my friend to on that first journey, that odyssey through a world of wonder. One of those times for beautiful memories to fill my mind. Then as night falls and the Greeks come out to promenade, as they come down to the old port and walk around, looking at me standing there on my own, I can hear them saying and some calling out, ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’. Now I had started writing a blog on this journey about my first, what can I call it other than my first Odyssey. My blog which is merely extracts from my journey, Odyssey with a friend after leaving the Chelsea school of Art after a year to travel with him, backpacking around the Mediterranean and the adventures we had. So there I am surrounded by people promenading by saying ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’, looking at me and smiling, thinking that they must know something about my blog but not sure how, as when I checked my statistics for it, it had been viewed by about 2 maybe 3 times /people. Well there are some other things from my life which mentioned beautiful intelligent women, pop stars and a few others, either being in love with me, or at the least interested in me, but just extracts, small pieces of my life from here and there. So when it comes to beauty or beautiful that is subjective. So there I am standing at the old port of Mykonos looking across the harbour to Mykonos town with hundreds of people promenading by many saying ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’ wondering what is going on, whether they are making fun of me for whatever reason and how do they know who I am. Then the ferry arrives, I board it, the seat I have on the ferry is next to a couple, twenty something, the women who is rather attractive is sitting next to me, talking to her partner then turning around and smiling at me.
But back, back much further now to the beginning, a beginning, who I am, why my life is unusual and maybe even why on Mykonos they came down to see me off and called out ‘Odysseus’ and ‘Beauty’ to me.
So back to that initial beginning, just after that first journey, that one into the world, my first odyssey. When I could crawl, if left unattended fora moment in the back garden apparently I had a habit of crawling into the coal bunker and eating coal. Now why I could not say as I was a well fed baby with a good diet full of all the minerals and vitamins I needed to grow… Maybe some natural yearning for carbon or charcoal… “
Russell Hand © ® all rights reserved
Yes this all happened… As did everything in the book I am writing…
Now this should be of interest to a lot people both Mindfulness who I have quite a few connected on here… Scientists again with quite a lot on here connected who might not have seen this… Neuroscientist etc… As well as a lot of organisations trying to raise human consciousness…
https://culturalevolutioncenter.org
… etc… Which is state of the art cutting edge technology used in the video below… which also illustrates why mindfulness needs to be taught at as earlier age as possible…
http://bigthink.com/videos/gail-saltz-the-brain-differences-of-liberals-versus-conservatives
And this I think everyone on the planet should spend 6 minutes watching, a video talk by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku… The evolution of intelligence… 6 minutes of anybodies time well spent…
http://bigthink.com/videos/the-evolution-of-intelligence
The idea that was suggested was to break it down into shorter pieces so they could be read at different times… A very good one… Thank you…
Russell Hand © ® all rights reserved except the links to the video talks and organisations their respective copyright ©