Brazil Flight from Paris

 It was easy to get to Rennes where we took a train to the airport. I can't remember whether it was Orly or Charles De Gaulle. I do remember that it was big. It was/is so big that we spent over an hour trying to find the gate that our plane was leaving from. I thought it would be easy as my travelling companion spoken French fluently. It felt like some scene from Kafka.

We went up and down in lifts. We ran along corridors. We stared at info boards and direction panels. We went up and down staircases, static ones and moving ones. We continually found ourselves back to square one.  Finally when we were an the edge and near to tears J asked a man who was driving a truck with luggage on where x was. He first attempted to describe a route and we just stood in front of him looking so depressed that he said, "OK. I shouldn't do this but I'll take you there. Climb on."

OMG you will never under stand the relief we both felt. And it wasn't a short journey. That airport is as big as a city. Anyway we made the plane. The flight was fine for me. We were given the usual kit for long flights - eye masks and head phones for the radio and TV. The could lower the seats, they were more like loungers. You could lower the back and raise the front to support your legs and feet. There was the radio at the side and a tv just in front at eye level. 

Before we took off J was moaning about how she hated long flights (she went to Brazil at least twice a year.) I was a little concerned because I didn't want  to arrive in Rio after an almost 12 hour flight having had no sleep. In the event I watch a little TV then fell fast asleep for almost the whole flight. J hardly slept at all. She tossed and turned all night tutting and groaning.

When we landed it was obvious that I was fine and she was more agitated than ever. This was the point that I realised that my companion was stressed out and very agitated and quite unhappy and not a little angry. What was worse she turned all her anger toward me. She was annoyed that I had slept and she hadn't. I was beginning to realise that this "holiday" was a mistake. The worst part was that, it was going to last a month. I tried to think positive thoughts like, "She will calm down and relax when she is with her family." 

I have no recollection how we travelled from the airport to our first host family. We may have been met; we could have taken a bus; or even a taxi.

However we arrived in Rio within walking distance of Coco-cabana beach to stay in the flat of J's eldest son, wife and two children.

Philosophy ????

1 The study of the basic ideas about knowledge,right and wrong, reasoning, and the value of things.

2 A specific set of ideas of a person or a group Greek philosophy.

3 a set of ideas about how to do something or how to live 

Live and let live- that's my philosophy

Thinking

 Trying to understand philosophy after spending 2 hours listening to people interrupting each other I decided to do some research.

1 The meeting/ session/ lecture whatever it was supposed to be was just a badly organised therapy session.

2 I researched Locke and Descartes but it only made matters worse. I am completely confused and wonder how is philosophy relevant to my life. I certainly do not understand it. 

3 Philosophers differ fundamentally and now I am even more confused.

4 I spent over an hour on this when my intention was to concentrate on my own writing.

Meta Physics

 Metaphysics

1. the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, identity, time, and space.

   "they would regard the question of the initial conditions for the universe as belonging to the realm of metaphysics or religion"

   • abstract theory with no basis in reality.

     "the very subject of milk pricing involves one in a wonderland of accounting practice and a metaphysics all its own
   • 
     
   •   Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of consciousness and the relationship between mind and matter.

Philosophy 2

 Rene Descartes

Moral philosophy 

For Descartes, ethics was a science, the highest and most perfect of them. Like the rest of the sciences, ethics had its roots in metaphysics.^[84] In this way, he argues for the existence of God, investigates the place of man in nature, formulates the theory of mind–body dualism, and defends free will. However, as he was a convinced rationalist, Descartes clearly states that reason is sufficient in the search for the goods that we should seek, and virtue consists in the correct reasoning that should guide our actions. Nevertheless, the quality of this reasoning depends on knowledge, because a well-informed mind will be more capable of making good choices, and it also depends on mental condition. For this reason, he said that a complete moral philosophy

Philosophy

    John Locke  

Slavery and child labour

Locke's views on slavery were multifaceted and complex. Although he wrote against slavery in general in his writing, Locke was an investor and beneficiary of the slave trading Royal Africa Company. In addition, while secretary to the Earl of Shaftesbury, Locke participated in drafting the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, which established a quasi-feudal aristocracy and gave Carolinian planters absolute power over their enslaved chattel property; the constitutions pledged that "every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves". 

Theories of religious tolerance

1. Earthly judges, the state in particular, and human beings generally, cannot dependably evaluate the truth-claims of competing religious standpoints;
2. Even if they could, enforcing a single 'true religion' would not have the desired effect, because belief cannot be compelled by violence;
3. Coercing religious uniformity would lead to more social disorder than allowing diversity.

The Departure

 

The Departure

Case in hand and heavy legged

I drag towards the exit.

The echoing corridor dwarfs me.

Could my bleeding body feel smaller?

A snake would slither away unseen

Or a worm.

‘Sophie, Sophie,’

a gentle voice behind me.

I stop. Unwillingly I turn.

‘Where’s your baby?’ she whispers.

My paralysed throat has no voice.

She can see the waterfall of tears

And hear the strangled sobs.

‘I have no baby now.

He belongs to another.’