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Pete Seeger – Community activist, musician, and inspiration for peace
I don’t want to focus my thoughts on war right now or the arguments about who is right or wrong. What I need is hope. So with that purpose in mind I have edited and updated this article first written in 2014. Maybe it will resonate with your desire for peace and hope too. Image credit – Pete Seeger at the Clearwater Festival in June 2007 Photo taken by Anthony Pepitone Pete Seeger, singer and musician, died on January 27, 2014. His unique style and passion for music brought people together locally and globally. His songs with words such as “We shall overcome” or “Where have all the flowers gone” stirred millions to march…
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The “old laughing lady” in Olhão market
“If I were a pop star, I’d sing like Johnny Cash,” said Clive James. I wondered who Josie would imitate? I do not sing, but music and Josie’s voice are occupying my thoughts. Josie Whistler is a character in development. She may appear as an ageing hippy, owner of a food van, frequenting music festivals, in a new novel this year. The birth pangs are not painful, just ever present and ponderous. My head was full of Josie when we made our way to Olhão Market, parking near the garden not far from the port.
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L is for love, lies and last days!
Jim, my husband, wants me to write about love. But I am not sure where to begin. I could talk about all the people that I love, but that may embarrass them and me. I could say I love my family, but what does that indicate? If you were raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and decided to leave, then you probably have had a weird experience of love and family connection. Denial of the person is how it works. Shunning is the process. It is unloving, unkind and probably unforgivable, yet hundreds of thousands of people experience the lack of family love because their relatives are part of a high…
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Defectors – by any other name
“Kim Philby, Britain’s most notorious cold war traitor, told an audience of East German spies after his defection, that he was able to avoid being rumbled for so long because he had been “born into the British governing class.” So says the Guardian – His exploits, along with those of Burgess, Blunt, and Maclean make for dramatic reading. Known as the Cambridge Spy ring, it turns out that they may have been influenced and possibly led by a woman, Edith Tudor-Hart. Documents declassified after 50 years reveal that Edith was under round the clock surveillance. “The MI5 files detail the way in which the agency’s close scrutiny of Tudor-Hart’s life…
