The Unidentifiable Beauty

I do respect everybody’s freedom of religion but it won’t be a surprise that my sympathy goes out to the most forgiven ones and especially those who adjust their interpretation, of books once written down, when gained knowledge and wisdom required them to do so. The bible is moderated thru times by religious leaders according to their views even up until the ultimate censorship of deciding which book they thought would fit the bible and which did not because of the inconvenience of having contradictional manuscripts. Especially in times when women still were seen as property, there’s no doubt that if it had been a conclave with partly women, the bible would have had a complete other appearance that it has now. That’s just a problem I personally have with putting together a bunch of historic manuscripts and not being open for debate when other equally important manuscripts are found. Besides the tremendous wealth of some religious “leading churches” while their flog is starving in some ...

It’s been almost a month. Four weeks of trying to live as “biological” as possible. The appreciation for the sawdust making life has grown tremendously over this time. It made me realize that being conscious of the consequences that your way of living effects the environment is a necessity, but the way of dealing with it is a personal journey of figuring out what measures are the right ones in daily living situations. Making a big mess of the landscape as a result of denying yourself and your farm animals of any modern techniques and products that might have a “bad” influence on nature, (including WIFI and cleaning products) is just not my “cup of tea”. I’m not blessed with a structured mind, as a matter of fact, I have a tendency to let chaos take over. That said, there is a limit and it’s reached when I start to feel uncomfortable and experience a force inside to clean things up, get it straight. Being in this little chaotic paradise with free running (shitting) chickens, hiding th...

First foot out, touching reality. Live underneath a blanket, safeguarded confidentiality. Second foot exposed, strike two for the floor. No hiding from the cold, it's not a poetic metaphor. Slowly bending over, first sock on. Can’t find the second one, an early morning phenomenon. Twenty steps away from coffee, the battle starts again. No noise or swearing, got to act like a gentleman. Kettle on the stove, the weather forecast on TV. Deliberately empty bottle, Repsol is terrorising me. Decisions are to be made, back to bed or be a man. Changing the orange bottle, or go back to where all began. The sun is out, it won’t be cold, A one socked naked body, embarrassment to be unfold. While manhood retracts, carrying a heavy load. Eyes starring from a window, last bit of pride is swallowed. Connected orange energy, flames underneath a kettle. The smell of brewing coffee, worthwhile the early morning battle. Brown gold poured, seeing different...

It is one of mankind’s biggest achievements, the invention of walls. It took a while before the human race started thinking about the concept of stagging rocks up vertically or putting branches close enough together in the ground to make a barrier. The ones indoctrinated with the excuse for being unable to explain the diversity and complexity of nature, called religion, will certainly be aware of the fact that if “God” had created walls from the beginning, Eve would have never been able to reach the forbidden fruit. Walls led to the invention of ladders, scaffolding, stairs and later on even elevators. Once the concept of putting a roof on a few walls, to have shelter from rain and cold, got embraced by men, “housing” became the norm for being a part of a society. Although there’s nothing natural about 4 walls, some windows and a door, being “homeless” excludes a person from respect and makes him or her non-existing. You can’t be an individual human being if you don’t have a registered...

“Not Just Sawdust, Não Só Serradura, because it isn't just that. It's the evidence reflecting the relentless urge to create, the proverbial blood of that beautiful material nature provides us with. It's the sharp teeth that cut, the subdued mind that finds out what a piece of wood harbours in itself”. I wrote this a long time ago for my website. At first site, sawdust looks just waste during the process of creating, but with the expansion of biological solutions in all kinds of fields, it became a sought-after, sellable product.  Now I don’t mind giving sawdust away for free, it’s very useful for those biological toilets. I even do sell shavings and sawdust, the product that remains from planing or sanding by hand is very useful as “smoke dust”. It turns out that blood, in any form, is big business! It’s such a lucrative business, that managers of Sanquin, a so-called non-profit organization that regulates blood supply in the Netherlands (because everything to do with hea...

As I am scrolling down the entries in one of the Facebook groups, I saw a post with potential. Potential in a way that it seemed like some kind of job offer for people with various skills. “Hi, I have just secured a 1.5 hectare pretty piece of land in The Golden Triangle 5 mins from the beach in a prestigious resort area of Algarve. Our project is to build a Horse Sanctuary - EcoLodge - Glamp-site, creating a tranquil space to retreat. I am offering free accommodation (tent or mobile home space for now) to anyone willing to help my partner and I clear the land and start building. We have borehole access but need to set it up. In the mean time water tanks. We will have 24/7 solar power (buying this week) We have already a BBQ and communal rest area with sun beds. Lots of shade/trees. Skills needed are carpentry, landscaping, fencing, gardening, building, welding etc. If you think you would be a good fit for us please PM me telling me why with brief Bio and relevant experience. We are ...

They all thought it was just funny. That sweet old German lady who sold easter eggs on a local market, decorated with swastika’s, the Canadian coffee shop that served their coffee with the same symbol on top of the cream and the shoe company that gave the sole of their boots a graphic profile, so they would leave a despicable trace of swastikas where ever the one wearing them would walk. Just for fun, freedom of expression. Including German license plates with Nazi symbols, all these “artistic” ideas to slowly make these symbols becoming a normal part of society again, were declared illegal by different courts and judges. The thoughts behind it are scary though. Scary in a sense of the normalization of racism and nationalism being excepted by such a large number of people. The progress made in accepting the fact that the world is inhabited by all sorts of people with different beliefs, skin colour, religion, sexual preferences and lifestyles haven’t only come to a stop, but in fact is ...

Lesson learned. Lots of lessons to go... I don’t write so much anymore because daily circumstances force me to put all the energy into finding little odd jobs to keep the dream alive. Nevertheless, in the last few days, I learned some lessons about the consequences of taking on every opportunity that comes along. At the same time that a grandson  – who’s Jewish family survived the horrific actions of the Nazi’s in the Second World War because of some brave farmer and his family in “Zeeland” (southern province in the Netherlands), hide them in a secret room next to a Moroccan sergeant from The Daoud group, who managed to escape as a forced laborer at the German construction on the Atlantik-Wall –  is killing unarmed protesters and the Boar from Pig Paradise is lightning up the fire in the middle East by opening the embassy in Jerusalem, I was on my way to start on a 2 day job.  I didn’t have much information but it involved some cleaning up and painting a few walls of...

To fat to be in the guard of honour. In other words; How the fight for freedom and equality was lost. Complaining TV viewers have succeeded in ensuring that people with a substantial figure can no longer take part in the guard of honour on the Waalsdorpervlakte, one of the most important Dutch war memorial sites where more than 250 people have been executed by the Nazis. Around the monument on May 4, there is a guard of honour of volunteers of the “Association Erepeloton Waalsdorp”, some of them being children and grandchildren of the victims. The chairwoman of the association stated: “A number of members of the guard of honour are starting to get a substantial posture, at least for this function. There are regularly annoying comments and complaints about it. In order to prevent this, we will have to give people who are to fat a different task”. According to the explanation, the association thinks that fat people "do not look good" and that's why some of them have b...

The municipal elections are over in The Netherlands and that's nice because now the Dutch prime minister is able to deal with the real problems again. And that's important. At his party, the VVD (extreme rightwing politicians camouflaged as Liberals), they know what the hard-working police officer, nurse, carpenter, plumber, butcher and baker really like. Tax evasion, fraud, integrity scandals, fiddling with receipts, (a dozen of ministers of the prime minister Rutte’s party had to resign in the years he’s in power because of exactly those things) does not bother anyone when you are gouverned by a narcissist, wearing a fresh and tidy shirt with rolled up sleeves, telling who the real profiteers in the country are, the disabled people. The Prime minister and his coalition friends of the Christian Party and the former Democrats of D66, like clear and easy choices that put individuals on either side of their line. Doers or thinkers, builders or profiteers, risk takers or runawa...

He must have been a great man although he had a lower education, this Jesus character who was nailed to a cross so that 2000 years later people would have a few days of holiday. The idea of coming back to life made business flourish by selling chocolate Easter bunny’s, made the workers unions, in lots of countries around the world, negotiate with gouvernments to make it into a two days celebration and made some commercial geniuses convince the crowd that the best way to spend Easter holidays is by spending money at Ikea or other furniture selling boulevards. As some religious fanatics came up with the story that he died for all the peoples’ sins it soon became in fashion that future sins were included.  Now wouldn’t it be great if one of the 15 Palestinian protesters that were murdered bij the Israelian army would resurrect? Maybe that man that was just harvesting the crops on his land that happens to be within the 300 range of the illegally built concentration-camp fence. I gues...

I really can’t remember anything about the days my mother was pushing me around the village in a stroller. From what I’ve been told I must have been an inquisitive child, wondering about almost anything I saw for the first time. I do remember the punishment I got at the age of 4, when I took some wooden blocks home from nursery school, to saw them in half because they wouldn’t fit in the castle I was building. It didn’t get any better when I took our little organ apart just because I was curious how it worked, although I had some fun with the one-meter long “mouth harps” that came out of it. As soon as I went to primary school, learned how to read and write, she, my mother, bought a (too) expensive encyclopedia and referred to the big books whenever a question came up. My parents weren’t highly educated, didn’t waste time, didn’t have time to read literature. They were just hard-working middle-class people, both having a job next to a little antique shop. Next, to the 26 books of knowl...

Being wrong doesn’t mean being stupid, it’s mostly a matter of being un-, or misinformed. It happens to all of us at some point. Although it’s hard to admit that your point of view was based on personal circumstances, political views, (non) religious upbringing or level of education, sometimes there’s no other solution than to admit that the arguments of others are better. As long as you think things thru as an individual there’s room for facts, historic perception and other people’s ideas and solutions. At some point – sometimes soon, sometimes a bit late – personal pride is swallowed and personal convinces are reviewed. That it’s much harder when you are part of a group, sharing the same (wrong) ideas about certain problems and ways to solve them, is a fact. It can take decades, even centuries for a group of people – a society – to see the wrong choices that were made and realise the consequences of actions taken. Institutions, gouvernments and politicians are rarely willing to adm...

As I walk down an anonymous street and see a man begging for some cash I know I never slept on concrete never looked for food among the trash I’m not that kind of person common sense or just some luck So many unfortunate people of that kind but the world doesn’t give a fuck As I saunter thru a bright lighted city of sin Jump away for some banker’s limousine I know I never be part of those who win won’t be some aristocrat losing his head at a guillotine I’m not that kind of person common sense or just integrity So many greedy people of that kind but the world has given in to superiority As I bimble the back roads of keeping up appearances gazing at fake smiles and illusory happiness I know who I am and it’s just that no need to lie, no need for competitive madness I’m not that kind of person common sense or just plain self-esteem So many snooty people of that kind religiously believing that scheme As I stroll through a village where gardens compete hea...

It’s a big part of my brain activity lately, after reading some columns, some studies and seeing a few documentaries and films. The search for happiness and why it so hard to be successful in finding it. Why even bother to chase it when it’s always disappearing at the moment you feel it’s close by. It seems that happiness became a business structure, some kind of a marketing tool as a reward for purchasing the right ingredients to have a happy life.  To be exact, it’s the promise to encounter happiness that’s been used in so many adverts, political statements, lotteries and life coach leaflets. Strangely enough, they come with a price tag, the solutions offered by those who deal in happiness. In the end, happiness can’t be bought, no matter how hard you believe in all the commercial solutions. The modern world is functioning because of one common promise to everyone who is willing to consume the ingredients. Whether it’s a stylish car, some anti-aging lotion, an iPhone X, an Ikea...

I read an article that suggested there is evidence that humans still are evolving and as any other species of animal are subject to changes in the environment. We humans are not detached from natural selection. But with modern advances in technology and the huge movements of people mixing things about a bit, many have suggested that perhaps we have broken free of its impacts. New research claims to have found traces of evidence that humans may indeed still be evolving.  One of the most well-studied examples of natural selection occurring in humans in recent times is that of the evolution to be able to digest milk into adulthood. Obviously, milk is usually only drunk by infants, and yet most Europeans, along with a few small groups in Africa and India, have evolved within the last 10,000 years the ability to continue digesting the white stuff way into adulthood, after the spread of agriculture. The study looked at the DNA of over 200,000 people living across both the United State...