Music Movement Life and Love.

Yesterday I had my afternoon with the friends I meet once a week. it involves me in a fairly lengthy bus journey or a train journey  depending on the place where we are going to meet. We sometimes meet where I lived before moving to my present place of residence. Otherwise we meet in a place where I hung my first ever painting up for sale.  I still have three paintings on sale in this place.

Yesterday we met there. We are a group of men each retired from a variety of jobs and each with a varied and interesting way of now spending our days. So after a bit of time going over what we have each achieved since the last meeting  the topics of discussion range from philosophy to politics. From religious topics to the mundane of what books are being read or  what television was found interesting. The latter is very infrequent because television seems to come low down on the list of interests of each and all of us.

There is often a rule at meeting where an ale is shared, "Discuss anything but leave out politics and religion." This is a rule we ignore. yesterday we of course discussed politics. At present our prime minister is trying to get a "New deal," in the EU. Then there will be an in out referendum. 

Now without boring anybody I can tell you we had a very interesting discussion. The discussion was not on the actual facts of what is being discussed in Europe, we have done that to death, but more on the way of politicians. It was generally agreed that no matter what happens they will all manage to look like winners.

I had found an interesting piece which I shared with them and share with you today.

It comes from the mouth of Armon M. Sweat, Jr., a member of the Texas House of Representatives. In 1952 he was asked about his position on whiskey, in Scotland the home of the drink we call it Whisky.

This is the exact words he said.

"If you mean whiskey, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being.

"However, if by whiskey you mean the lubricant of conversation, the philosophic juice, the elixir of life, the liquid that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it.

"This is my position, and as always, I refuse to compromise on matters of principle."

Now is this not in fact just like a politician. No matter what the question they will have two response so that all those who vote for them will be content with one of the responses.

We had an interesting discussion all agreed that it would be good if all politicians could be just like us. We all call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel. There can be nothing better in life than knowing that the person you speak to is giving you an open and forthright honest answer. Friendship can only be built on truth not on lies or prevarication.